There are worse places to be broken down than Bermuda

After making it in here the other day, fried mentally, and physically exhausted, from the 24 hour straight, no sleep, challenge to hand steer AF with the emergency tiller, I am finally recovering. On top of the rigours of 8 days at sea alone, my hands stayed swollen for 3 days from grasping the lines on the tiller for 24 hours, and my side was bruised from leaning into it to steer. I am feeling so much better, and ready to get to my repairs, and now the weather has turned bad again. Predicted up to 35 knot winds until Friday. (One good thing is that I don't really know what day of the week it is anymore, so Friday could be tomorrow or 6 days from now.) When I arrived here, with limited maneuverability, they asked me to anchor in a quarantine area, and that was fine with me at the time, as there were only 2 other boats here, and no chance for me to clip someone trying to anchor. But, it is the least sheltered area from the wind, and I will take a beating here for these next few days.
When I arrived, I had to get the dink off the deck, and so I put the little 4hp engine on her, and went in to clear customs. It is so slow, but I can lift it and handle it without help, but I decided later to winch down the 15 hp engine and exchange them, so I could get around faster. Of course, I have only done this a couple times, each time avoiding some disaster, and no different this time. As I swung the motor out over the dink, the lifting strap slipped and the engine dropped 2 feet, but stayed. I am starting to think that the Harbor Masters get their binoc's out when they see me on deck, just to what calamity I am going to have next. But the big engine is on and boy, does it fly. The dink only weighs 100 lbs or so, and when it planes, you have to back off quickly on the throttle, or you will be thrown out of the boat when it hits a wake or wave. 2 nights now, I have gone in to town for dinner and drinks and had a blast flying the little dink around the harbor in the dark, particularly on the ride home, with the aid of a few beers or cocktails. That makes it ALL fun, even getting out of the dink and climbing into AF.
I may have mentioned in the previous blog that within an hour of arrival, some fellow was banging on the side of the boat. He had seen me come in. Dale was crewing on another boat to the Carib that broke down in the storm, but he owns a Morgan 46 like mine, newer though, back home in Minnesota, of all places, and is working on his in the back yard, effectively. He is a very nice guy, who came back yesterday, and we rigged some lines so he could raise me up to the top of the mizzen mast to retrieve my lost halyard - a very, amateur mistake. We had a few beers afterwards and did what I do best - just sat in the cockpit and talked!
His captain came to pick him up later with an invite for me to have cocktails aboard another boat, the owners of which were wonderful hosts, and run a charity from sea to get school books to poor Carib. island kids. He wrote/published/edited in the sailing magazine field all of his life, and had some great stories about interviews he had done all over the world. His wife made me my first Dark an' Stormy, a local traditional drink of the local rum which is black colored, and ginger beer. Another guest was a young man who is also a single hander like me, who towed a broken down sailboat (There were a LOT of boats broken in this storm as well as many who just turned tail and went home.) 140 miles here to Bermuda. I look forward to spending more time with Drake, to see how he has boat set up and what he might suggest for me. And I want to see his wind generator setup, as his are the same as my new one sitting in the box in the bow berth. When I departed their boat, I rode into town and had some supper and a couple more, and came back out to AF. Climbed in, and was settling down, when - bang bang bang - it was Dale again - Let's go into town for a couple. Back into the dinks for a bit of racing at 11 pm across St George's in the dark! And a couple more Dark an' Stormy's. When I got back after closing time, I did some checking on the anchor system and made a change or 2, and boy did I screw that up, all with the aid of the rum. Hence, my apprehension tonight about dragging anchor or damaging the boat in this wind.
There is a device called a snubber, which in various forms performs the same thing - to put some spring or stretch into the anchor line, so that the force of being blown backwards is not all put on the chain or the windlass. I screwed it up last night. Tied it incorrectly, and it fell off, and the windlass was not tensioned properly, and almost every inch of rode is out now. That leaves none to put out if I start to drag. I haven't anchored like that since last year, and then, only once, so had just forgotten the correct knot. AF came with 2 other versions of the snubber that are bought commercially, but wanted to do it 'the right way'. Goofed it up good. I have the 2nd anchor now sitting to properly deploy if the anchor alarm goes off, meaning the anchor is dragging and I have drifted too far from my original position.
It was 75 here today, the sky was blue and partly cloudy even with this wind howling. I am staying aboard, to anchor watch, until this blow is over, and that makes it a bit boring, but I feel good enough now to get to work on the aft berth, to start the take off for the hose and fittings, and start to clean the mess up. There is hydraulic fluid everywhere. It even squirted into my hair that morning, when a wave bumped the rudder and it moved the ram. I was in such a panic - not the right word really - to find the trouble at first, that I used anything handy to clean my hands or wipe the fluid up, and it is on the sheets, the mattress, and I think I ruined a couple of my best T-shirts as rags.
Tried to cheer things up today with a decent home cooked meal, something which I am incapable of producing, but I thawed some chile, and cut up some apples that were pretty bruised from the bouncing we took, and baked them with raisins for an apple cinnamon desert. And I even made some 'Coke' with the Soda Club drink machine. Beats the baloney sandwich and cold coffee I had for lunch.
It looks like I will be here when Queen Elizabeth visits in 2 weeks, for the celebration, I think, of Bermuda's 400th year as Britain's. I have been told that when she visits Bermuda, she likes to play a certain poker machine over in the corner of the bar where I have been eating and also kicks butt on a trivia machine (I saw ER as top scorer - could it really stand for Elizabeth Regina?), so maybe she can buy me a drink or 2, if she wins. Not sure that is true, but we shall see.
The government here will allow me to stay 2 weeks here, with 2 more weeks possible. So, all in all, even with the tension of getting thru this blow at anchor (every gust sends AF coasting back and forth and rocking about.) and facing the repairs I need, there are a lot worse places to be broken down than Bermuda.

Will try to snap and post some pictures tomorrow if it is not as bouncy and windy as today. I was almost blown off me feet a couple times today while out on deck.