It's August the 1st, the day of the annual Creativity Awards for gear
failure on sea going vessels. This year we have very strong entries
including the port lower shroud that has been on the front pages of all
the tabloids here in Porcupine Abyssal Plain, causing the loss of the
rig on British Beagle 185 miles offshore many consider this an entry too
strong to beat. We have other entries such as VHF aerial connections
momentarily failing, failing navigation lights and even the right burner
on the Plastimo stove that wont ligth a flame.
After much debate by the jury and with a crowd of dolphins to match the
best red-carpet events we finally have the results.
And the winner of the 2008 Creativity Award for gear failure is: The
autopilot!
The jury has carefully considered all entries and could not but praise
the way the autopilot, which had already been jury-repaired a hundred
and seventy five times, managed to fail, once more, but in a different,
new, unexpected, creative way and especially noteworthy was the choice
of timing, while the boat is being motored back limping with no mast.
Ok, ok, enough messing about, I'm just trying to keep the spirits high
here at British Breakle. The auto pilot attachment sheered in half, this
time nothing to do with the screws, those held well, too well, the plate
itself that holds the pin broke in half. I motored all night under
windvane going sort of straight but this morning with the wind abating
further i had to find a way to repair it if i was to draw a stright
course to dingle rather than a Pollock style paint dribble wiggly route.
It's working now and it kept me entertained for an hour or so this
morning as i drilled a bolt right through the helm to act as pin.
Otherwise, everything is fine, i slept quite a lot as the Sea-me said
there was no one around all night, i have the radar on watch and it
didnt blip once, nor did the AIS. I still have 125 miles to go which
actually by the standards of this trip doesnt seem a lot, it's the slog
back to the solent that is going to be a right pain in the neck, not
really looking forward to it.
Bye bye for now,
Marco
British Bollocks
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