Hi. Dave here. Shamed into writing by pressure from a number of folk who responded to our last blog.

Finally, the work on the wind-vane frame was finished and it was installed this morning. It may be a few days later than promised but the workmanship is without fault. The yacht engineer business here has the strap line ‘if it’s man made – we can fix it’. And I believe them. Their workshop is one part modern machine shop one part jumble store of recycled and collected boats bits and pieces.

It will have been worth waiting as without the wind steering it is much harder on the two of us, hand steering for a few hours on a coastal passage is fun, but non stop for a number of days is too much.  We do have an electric autopilot we can revert to but as H has said I do worry about the amps.

We had a text this evening from the Coconuts (Hugh, Miranda and Simon.) they are already 400 miles west of us and we will have our work cut out to catch them before landfall in Barbados. If we are later in guys, remember the cold ones we had for you on your arrival in Mindelo…

So, we’ll be at sea for at least 17 days. We intend to update the blog with help from Lisa. We can receive texts to the sat phone. +8816 51486672. Uk mobile providers may charge this but you can also text via the iridium website, http://www.messaging.iridium.com, or email us at graceoflongstone@myiridium.net. Just plain text please, if you include photos of the 6 foot of snow in the back garden it won’t get through, much as we’d like to see it.

Time to go now. A few chores to tick off tomorrow then slip the lines and head west. It will be good to get back out to sea. Landfalls are great but the pull of new places to go prevents us sticking long in one place. Boat maintenance is the thing that does that.

Wish us fair winds and gentle seas. We will keep you posted on progress and if you feel like getting in touch, please do. As Miv said earlier today, urges get rarer as you get older, best act on every one.

Our newly welded self steering

our departure point

Simon, Hugh and Miranda leaving 4 days ahead of us for Barbados. Don’t think we’ll catch them.

Getting the dinghy stowed