The route leads past the oil pier, where tankers unload all of Bermuda's oil and gas, and past the entrance to Hamilton Harbor, where about all other freight is unloaded. Hamilton, "Town'" is the center of commercial activity, but only smaller ships can fit through "Two Rock Passage" at the entrance to its harbor.

It was not our problem to make sense of Bermuda's freight policies, however, so we continued on between the breakwaters into Dockyard. We saw that there was a ferry being worked on in our usual berth, so we shaped to lie alongside her, as we have done before, but were waved off by workers from Marine and Ports, who indicated we should lie on the float alongside the ferry slip, which we did. It turned out that the ferry's engines were being removed, so all her deck hatches were open, and walking across her would be somewhat risky, especially in the dark.

The ferry berth was ideal for us, because it is a float, so we could tie snugly to it, with no concern for the tide, and we stayed there, as it happened, our whole time in Dockyard.

Our old friend Doug Sutherland, manager of the boatyard and guiding spirit of Dockyard, was there to meet us and it turned out he had surpassed himself this year.

We had a drink in the afternoon with Adam, the bartender at Bonefish, and dinner that first night in the Frog and Onion with Doug. We were delighted to find Paul Jarrett, the engineer who designed the new sewage plant whom we had first met years before, there as well. Paul is a New Zealander who dreams of going places in a boat some day, and we had a very pleasant evening with them.

Friday night we had a very nice dinner with Doug and Caitlyn and Joanna Cranfield and her daughters; the adults cowered at one end of the table while the girls, best friends all,

Saturday was rainy, with little incentive to go out. Paul came to the boat for dinner, happy to not eat iin a restaurant for once, and that was very nice.He is that rare combination, very good at what he does, but also a very pleasant person.

We were a little excited to see a Royal Fleet Auxiliary oiler arrive one morning. This is basically a fast tanker equipped to refuel and resupply other ships while both are underway. She was in port for a little R & R on the way to do a tour of drug interdiction in the Caribbean. We did think this an odd mission for a tanker, but I supppose if that is the only ship you have available . . .

Spirit keeps a busy schedule, taking a full complement of school children out for a week at a time. We arrived during her "maintenance week," but we saw her leave one Monday morning, turning just outside us and heading off for St. George's.

We went shopping with the loan of Doug's truck and stayed for "quiz night" at the Frog, where our team was made up of Doug, Joanna, Paul, and ourselves. We did not do very well, I'm afraid, but we did have a good time.

I had earlier noticed knitted squares wrtapped around the cannon barrels in front of the World Heritage Center, but I did not pay much attention, thinking perhaps that this was a display of something for sale inside, at the gift shop. On our return this time, however, the wrappings on the cannon were gone, but several trees, and even a couple of lampposts, had acquired some. There is no placard or other explanation, but this is clearly some kind of public art.

We had a last dinner ashore (pizza at the Tavern by the Sea -- very good) and we did a few more chores on the boat. One of these was to replace the anchor light bulb with a LED unit that uses much less electricity. This will be important because we will be anchored out from the time we leave Bermuda until we get back there again.

The wind was as advertised, 25-30 knots north-northwest, and the seas about 6 feet. With this wind and sea behind us we made good time, generally running at about 8 knots over the ground instead of our usual 7.2,

Since the wind would be east when we reached the Trades, a day or so before arriving, we headed a little east of the rhumb line so as to be able to head off later and take the easterly seas on the quarter.

At 07:15, Friday, Feb 1st, we came on soundings and by 08:00 we could see the mountains of Tortola. Landfalls are always exciting, even in these days of GPS, when one knows exactly where one is.

This year we had decided to go first to St. John for mail and shopping, so we ran by the west end of Jost van Dyke and by Lovango Cay, and by 11:56 were anchored off Cruz Bay and stopped the engine for the first time in five days.

Barbara is now so well known on Jost that within an hour, I'd say, everyone seemed to know we were there. No one we met was surprised: "I saw the boat!" or "Oh yes, someone said you were here!"

One day we went by dinghy to White Bay next door to hear our friend Reuben Chinnery play at the One Love Bar, surrounded by twenty-somethings in the skimpiest of bathing suits.

We first dinghied ashore at the Village Cay Marina and went to Bobby's, where we bought enough to fill both our rollling carriers. After we took these back to the boat and stowed the food we dinghied ashore again, this time to the back of the boatyard on Wickham's Cay II, where we tied up next to the Travel Lift and went to the new RiteWay supermarket in Pasea Estate (which, we were delighted to find, is both a better and cheaper store than Bobby's), to the French Deli, and Tico's. Back on the boat we weighed anchor and left rolly Road Harbour for Peter Island.