I hate it when a plan doesn't come together.

We left Clarence Town at 12 noon to head for Turks and Caicos. We sailed south to the bottom of Crooked Islands estimating we would get there around midnight. The buddy boat Moseon and us were sailing great and making good time. We round the point at midnight and turned east toward the Turks. The wind was great and the waves were not to big. We were going about 6 to 8 knots and that was great. At 4;30 am our steering stopped working. I could not figure out what was happening so I started the engine to power the boat into the right direction. I had an over heat alarm so I had to shut down the engine. I called the buddy boat for assistance and there was no answer. I called for about 15 minutes and no answer. I figured we had no steering so I dug out the emergency tiller. I realized the wheel below the deck had broke. We were only 10 hours into our 40 hours trip and I could not hold the tiller all the way to the Turks. We had to turn around and head back to a safe anchorage. It took us 8 hours to get to and protected bay where we could get some sleep. We had not slept for 24 hours. We dropped anchor and slept for about 4 hours. I had a look underneath the wheel and found the wheel that controls the cables had dropped down. I tried for about 2 hours and could not figure out how it was supposed to go back together. So I decided to tackle the engine problem. I took off the water pump and looked at the impeller and that was our problem. I change the impeller and the engine was running again. We were in the middle of now where so I had to get us close to a cell tower so I could google how the steering goes back together. We sailed up 15 miles and saw a cell tower so I decided to anchor there. The wind was picking up and the waves where getting bigger so I thought this might be a good spot. I called the expert back in Oakville Jim Pollock and he help me a lot. We were still to tired to work and the waves were to big. We stayed in this anchorage for the night and the waves were so bad we didn't sleep. We had to move on the another place so we lifted the anchor to move on. BUT the anchor would not come up. I had to dive down and release the anchor from a hole in a rock then we were on our way. A short time later our davits broke off and our dinghy was dragging side ways in the water. We were definitely being tested. We got the dinghy straighten out and we were on our way. We were both exhausted and every move we made was a struggle. The winds were gusting 30 knots and the waves were building to 5 feet. All this time I had to steer the boat with the tiller. Laurie could not take a turn because she wasn't strong enough . After about 5 hours we anchored in Landrail Point where there was protection from the wind and waves. We got things straightened away and went to sleep for about 3 hours. Again I called Jim Pollock in Oakville and went over the procedure and went to work. It took about 3 hours and the steering was fixed. Now we have to get to the Turks our selves and we have to do it quickly. Yep anther front coming in this weekend. So we figure we can leave in the morning and make 2 stops and be in the Turks on Friday before the front comes in on Saturday. This is our plan and we know this one will work.