We didn’t plan a visit to Bermuda, but once here we enjoyed it. It was a very strange feeling (to your correspondent, at any rate) to be on terra firma. Accustomed after 10 days of sailing to continually adjusting and correcting one’s stance, the instinct to do so continues and the ground seems to be moving unpredictably. It was at least 24 hours before that feeling faded.

Neroli is docked in a small marina (zoom in on the Google map – we’re on the far left) in St. Georges Harbour. We arrived on Saturday evening and made an early start on Sunday trying to locate the right people to help us resolve the major problem (the generator) and two or three other less serious ones. The early going was discouraging, with everyone very busy and talking about availability a week from now, but the calls and visits continued and intensified on Monday, and eventually bore fruit.

On Monday afternoon the combined diagnostic efforts of Steve Hughes (the only marine electrician in Bermuda) and Charlie isolated the problem. A couple of hours later the generator was running: there was much excitement and a certain amount of relief. Asked for a layman’s explanation Charlie, instead of reeling off an impressive string of jargon, said, “A wire dropped off”. Truly, it wasn’t really that simple – you’d agree if you could see the generator, which has about 329 pieces of wire running in all directions form various places – but the main thing is, it now works again.

So we’re now back in a familiar pattern – final readiness, restocking provisions, cleaning and stowing. We’ll fuel up first thing, clear customs and be ready to leave Bermuda by early afternoon, subject to a favourable forecast (westerlies) from the ever-helpful Herb Hilgenberg.

For the speedy work we have been helped by a local character introduced to us by friends of Paddy’s in the US who had been following the blog and read about our generator plight. And also thanks to internet research we were able to meet up with an old friend of Richard’s who has lived in Bermuda for many years and who introduced us to the “other end” of the island – Hamilton.

So this was a necessary but pleasant break.Now we’re all very much ready to get back to sea.