A windvane self-steering gear  is a very clever device, fixed to the back of the boat it uses the wind to steer whatever course it is set to.  Essentially it does the job of an autopilot but doesn’t use any of the boat’s precious electrical power to do so. 

After a great deal of research Mike settled on the Hydrovane model as the most suitable for Tashi Delek and our sailing plans.  Hydrovane is made in Vancouver and you purchase direct from there rather than through any agent elsewhere.  They were used to delivering to Gibraltar and it suited us for a number of reasons to arrange delivery there.  Partly because we would not have to pay tax on it, partly because we would pick it up in good time for the Atlantic crossing and partly, well quite a lot really, because Meryon would be with us then and he has both the engineering and sailing knowledge to help us fit it.  But first we needed to pick it up and clear customs.

So, we walk across the runway to try and find the customs shed where the couriers had an office.  Duly found, there was surprisingly little form filling required before we were escorted up a rickety stairs to the Customs office proper.  Much smiling, stamping of papers and signing of forms ensued but all in fairly quick succession so back down to the couriers office who said it would be delivered to the boat in one hours’ time.  It was. 

We were surprised mainly because of the chaos that seemed to surround the customs shed.  This picture gives a taste with every vehicle pointing in a different direction.

It came in six  boxes so the first job was to check everything was there.  Unbelievable packaging so it arrived intact but requiring much patience and effort to get anywhere near it.

Mike had already strengthened the stern of the yacht with two layers of 6mm marine plywood during his stay on Menorca. So Meryon swung into action and had the thing measured, aligned, holes cut in the hull, fibreglass applied, and on in the time it would have taken Mike, by his own admission, to have finished measuring and plucked up the courage to take a drill to the hull.  Cutting holes in your boat is not something that comes naturally.

Within a couple of days we had a thing of beauty in our midst with thumping great steel poles bolted onto teak pads bolted onto Tashi Delek.

‘Sail’ on and ready for action.  All we needed to do now was learn how to use it.  Fortunately, again, Meryon had some previous on this and so shortened our messing-about-with-it-rather-than-carefully-reading-the-instructions-time quite considerably.

Finally an early morning view of the rock from Tashi Delek.