Alison's nail file saves boat.

Well, not quite but nearly. We tried to furl the genoa (front sail) this morning due to stronger winds to be greeted with a horrible whirring noise from the hydraulic furling system and a nasty smell of burning. Quick action by Ian and me cut all power. Investigations (hampered by trying to work in an environment rather like the inside of a washing machine) showed that the solenoid switch had jammed in the engaged position, for reasons not clear - possibly just age. This resulted in arcing and the contacts were well and truly burnt. The metal had melted and the solenoid would no longer engage and disengaged properly. Ian took it to pieces and cleaned it up. He could have used my nice set of mini-files to do it but I had helpfully stowed them somewhere in the boat and forgotten where, thus causing an annoying wasted half hour looking for them before we gave up (searching the holds in a moving boat is no fun at all). Alison then saved the day by producing her nail file which enabled Ian to complete the job and get the solenoid running again - we wait with interest to see how long for. If it breaks down completely we will have a problem - furling the sails will then have to be done manually from bow and mast using a diddy little windlass handle. Not a task for the fainthearted in a big sea.

I think we will be paying for extra baggage for Ian when he flies back out to the Canaries due to the weight of additional spares.

Apart from this we're making good progress and zipping across Biscay. We've crossed the continental shelf and are now in the deep water.