The good news is, we have crossed Finisterre! So officially, we can check the Beast of Biscay off our list of challenges!
On the other hand, the lesson being driven home is that all boats are work in progress. There’s not one I’ve sailed on (not that many) or read about (several more) that don’t need some fixing before, during or after a sail.
Sanjula needed her generator attended to when we got into Brest, and her genoa fixed in Coruna, as well as her autopilot.
On leaving Coruna we had some great weather coming up, after a rocky start to a 5 day sail to Madeira.
On day 2, Dilip and I did the ‘sunrise’ watch from 4 to 7am and went off to sleep. The first couple of days of a sail can be exhausting, as one settles into the rhythm of the watches. Or at least that’s our excuse for being caught snoozing when the orcas came visiting!
The crew on watch did their best to shoo them away, beating a hollow pipe and sending off some fireworks in their direction. Why? Well there has been a spate of orca attacks on sail boats off the coast of Spain recently.
The orcas did not look particularly threatening though, as they gambolled in the waters around the boat. Then, one of them took a dive…..
The bad news is that a nudge from one of the orcas broke the connecting rod from the rudder to the steering wheel. We had to quickly rig up and use emergency steering. Andrew, Dilip and Mark took turns helming the emergency tiller for over 10 hours, as we made our way to Vigo.
The orcas brought back memories of my last encounter with whales!
Sir Robin made a few calls en route and we had the marina folk on standby - they guided us into the marina last evening and immediately put us at ease. The local Raymarine office has confirmed a visit to fix the issue and we hope to be on our way tonight.
We continue to eat well... Yesterday was dal and rice for lunch while Dilip dished up some Chicken Cafreal for dinner.
Since this is a working pit stop, no sightseeing. Here’s what the guidebooks have to say:
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‘Without the dark you can’t see the stars’