Hello again Guernsey!

Serendipity
David Caukill
Thu 21 Jul 2011 07:53

This Morning's blog by David.  Approaching Havelet Bay, Guernsey 49: 27.066N 02: 31.737W

 

That bottle of Champagne that was on ice, waiting for us to celebrate rounding Ushant early this morning, errr.... is still on ice!

 

We set off as planned with a really excellent forecast. Southerly winds  veered and forecast through west to north and the skies cleared heralding the onset of a northerly airstream which is forecast to last all week - so wind behind us all the way across Biscay! We settled into our watch routine, handing over the mascot to each watch leader, and Peter cooked an excellent meal.

 

Our first dolphin greeted us towards dusk and played in  our bow wave. All was well with the world and I announced I was really comfortable with what we were about.  That probably was what put the mockers on it because about 22.00 the autopilot went haywire again.

 

I say again because it happened on the way to Guernsey but then we were assured by Raymarine that it was simply a matter of keeping our batteries topped up. If the voltage is too low it will fail.  While I expressed myself sceptical of the diagnosis (the batteries have never been more than 65% discharged) both the manufacturer and the local agent were adamant and the fault had corrected itself so there were no symptoms to investigate.  (By haywire, I mean that the pilot develops a mind of its own - changing course unprompted in leaps of 10-90 degrees to starboard and want respond to attempts for us to take manual control.  That could be quite dangerous).

 

Anyway, 15 hours out on a 3 year journey, and faced with the prospect of the three of us hand steering for 6 days, we decided that that Champagne must remain on ice as we return to:

 

Exotic Destination  No 3 – Havelet Bay

 

(Shame - not going to get a forecast for Biscay like that again!)