Sunday News!!

I’m back! First we have lots of winners today, so we’ll start there.

Congratulations to Lisa Myers who won a copy of Christi Caldwell’s book More Than a Duke!!

Give a hand to Lori Patterson for winning Miranda Neville’s book, The Duke of Dark Desires!

And to Jennifer Lowery for winning Marina Gabrielle’s book Royal Regard!!

Last, but certainly not least, Barbara Monajem picked three winners for her boxed set, Captivated by a Kiss!! They are Linda Thumb, Pat Walker Pinkston, and Patricia Wissore!!

As you know, we had been in Ft. Lauderdale waiting for a weather window.

The morning we were supposed to leave, squalls developed in the Bahamas. So we resigned ourselves to depart the next morning and did some last minute shopping. When we returned, the squalls had dissipated. It was already after 3PM, but we decided to go and finally left Ft. Lauderdale, after being held up by a cruise ship, around 5PM.

 

We passed out of the Bahamas late the next day, and were in open water for the rest of the nine day trip.  This is our first sunrise at sea.

My seasickness passed on the third day, just like everyone said it would. For the first few days we ate the passage meals I’d prepared, navy been soup and Boeuf Bourguignon. After that, we cooked. Which worked well until our wind indicator stopped working. That was the night Hubby decided to grill. All of a sudden the winds and seas kicked up, and we had to reef the mainsail. But because it was already dark, and we had no idea what the winds were, he wanted to take the sail down and motor. He no sooner put the chicken on the counter than a swell hit us broadside, and the chicken went flying. Fortunately, I had just cleaned the floor. Unfortunately, that was the end of it. We ended up just putting the rice, green beans, and chicken in one pot. It was a very uncomfortable night.

Next the outhaul (the thing that holds the sail on the boom) broke, and damaged the wind generator. So we ended up completing the trip with the sail reefed.

Days on end with nothing but water can be pretty boring, but I was able to get a lot of writing done.

We stopped by Puerto Rico for fuel and had our first experience anchoring in the dark. This is what we woke up to.

 

This guy was bound and determined that we weren’t kicking him off the fuel dock.

We are now home on our mooring at least for a little while.

Now I just need to finish the last few chapters of the book and edit it, complete the copy-edits on Lady Beresford’s Lover, and the galleys on A Kiss for Lady Mary.

What were you doing while I was gone?

 

Ella