On the day that we left Oriental, North Carolina, toward the end of the day, I thought I had an eyelash or something under my contact lens.  I went down below, took it out, rinsed it with saline solution, and was going to put it back in when it broke in half.  

I wear scleral contact lenses.  They are rigid, not soft.  And they are large, the contact edges sit on the white part of the eye, the sclera.  This is because I had a corneal transplant in 2007 in my right eye and because my left eye has a condition that causes an uneven thinning of the cornea. So - special contact lenses.  Glasses don't cut it for me because the cornea is the lens of the eye and my corneas need the shape of contacts to be able to see.  Glasses can't do it.   

All of this to say, a broken contact is a major inconvenience.  It has stopped our southerly progress.  I saw an eye doctor in Wilmington last Friday, the day after the contact broke. After that appointment, new lenses were ordered and now we wait for the call to say they are ready.

You may wonder why I didn't have a backup pair on board.  The answer is that they are very expensive.  They were $700 each last January.  Not per pair.  Each.  Out of pocket.  And my prescription changes pretty dramatically year by year.   However, we've discovered that my glasses which were my only-for-emergencies back-up plan, are quite inadequate for being at sea.  So, we are going to bite the bullet and spend the money on two new right contacts and one new left one so that I'll have two pair.  It's been another expensive week of not making southerly progress.  All eye doc and contact lens costs were out-of-pocket.  No vision coverage.  

The upside?  We got to spend some really quality time with our friend Jamie Lynn, who moved to Wilmington from Aspen a couple of years ago.  

And we've gotten a few small boat projects done.   

And we are going to Trader Joe's and the laundromat.  And the marina is relatively inexpensive and has some wifi (slow is better than none).

As soon as I can see properly, we'll start sailing south again.