Vigo, Tiller Pilot, Genoa and Wind Vanne

NB all references to "Today" "Yesterday" are a day behind on account of laptop charging going on blink.

We arrived yesterday evening after a good sail from Morus.The day started out grey and wet indeed as Tony said, it made one nostalgic for the Channel.

We also started with the two hours of motoring to clear the coast in light but increasing winds on the nose. However, after a couple of hours we were able to turn south and set sail. A couple more hours and the sun came out and we had a most enjoyable sail to the Ria de Vigo and then up the Ria to Vigo itself.

The passages was just short of 46 nautical miles which I was able to measure because the log mysteriously started working again. We had a close encounter at the entrance to the Ria...

We think it was a car transporter and it was on it's way to Zeebrugge.

On arrival at about 1800 BST we were given a berth bin the old Real Club Nautico Marina about which we had read mixed reports. We apparently had use of the swimming pool, showers and Sauna a couple of minutes away. The showers were tepid but welcome and we have not tried the sauna yet.

Today we were moved into the new marina which is very posh but so new that there is no water or power yet available.

Last night we had a telephone conversation with Chris who built the wind vane and he suggested a number of areas to look at including increasing the weight of the counterbalance weight. We did that today and the results were most promising but we will have to undertake sea trial to be sure. We might therefore take the boat out for the day on Saturday to test things out.

Not so good news about the Tiller Pilot. To our great surprise the marina people said they would arrange for someone to  visit the boat. David turned up in the afternoon and the results of my careless approach to fuse replacements were revealed a burned out motor and a damaged circuit board. David took it away to investigate further and to price the repairs, but it will probably cost just as much as a new one. There's not much else to it other than the motor and circuit board! Worst news was to come though. He said it wasn't powerful enough for the boat. OK for motoring but not up to withstanding the forces of sailing!!! No pressure Wind Vane.

It turns out that we still have problems with the furling mechanism of the Genoa and after fiddling about about with it today we concluded that we'll have to take the whole system apart to investigate. That's tomorrow's major job.