An engineer came to the Yealm ( a gorgeous spot) and fixed the autohelm. The pin holding the motor arm to the tiller had been badly fixed and fallen into the bilges! Our first leg on 31 July was to Falmouth for the night - grotty weather all the way, but a good dinner ashore at least. Our first attempt to leave England on 1 August was again straight into a south westerly force 7 gusting 8, hard on the nose. With the wind rising considerably we holed up in the Helford - all very boring but at least we had the Bourne videos to watch! We decided to 'go' pm the next day as time was against us and set off into similar conditions -a real buffetting. We heard later that one boat crossing the channel that night was actually dismasted! Later the next day we found ourselves in extremely foggy/murky conditions.  Such fun as there might have been was quickly dispelled by the fact that the radar failed and, far from managing to make our destination in Portugal we abandoned the boat in Brest.  We had considered going into Camaret, but with the radar problem we crept round the corner down a foggy Channel du Fort, just getting enough of the full tide to help, so that we could get repairs done.