The night anchored in Gillan, started well with almost calm conditions, but during the night the wind picked up from the northeast and Elektra was rolling a lot. This kept me awake in the early hours and l got out when it got light. I made coffee and Vicki got out as well. We were going to leave around 0700hrs to catch the tide from Manacle Buoy around the Lizard Point into Mount’s Bay.
Normally l would have been quite happy to set off on my own without disturbing Vicki but the day before our tiller pilot went wrong, so l needed Vicki on the helm. Vicki helmed for the first 2hrs, we motored Elektra from Gillan east out to the Nare Point, then started sailing southeast towards Manacle Buoy. The tide was pushing Elektra towards the Manacle rocks, so for the last mile to the Buoy we where motor sailing. Once around the Manacle Buoy an hour after leaving Gillan Elektra was sailing well, on a broad reach to Black Head.
From there now with the wind more behind Elektra’s mainsail was taking her genoa’s wind, so l went on deck and pulled her mainsail down, which slowed Elektra a bit but she was still making 5kts over ground. Around this time Vicki went down below and went to sleep. I sailed Elektra on Around the Lizard Point, thinking the last time we were here things didn’t go well! But all was well this time. I was expecting a broad reach on the other side of the Lizard Point, but no the wind died away and Elektra’s speed dropped below 2kts.
At which point l started her engine and motored on at 5kts, not having the tiller pilot working was a bit of a problem, in the end l lashed the tiller to allow me to leave her helm and go to the head. On the way back l grabbed my log book which allowed me to do some entries while in the cockpit. The lashed tiller worked quite well, not as good as the tiller pilot, but good enough in the conditions. Motoring on across Mount’s Bay for 2hrs and then when we were nearly to the Mount a head wind picked up from the northwest, force 4 gusting 5! I wasn’t about to start sailing now this close to arriving, so l upped the revs and pressed on and we motored into St Michael’s Mount anchorage and dropped anchor at 1315hrs, 6hrs after leaving Gillan having logged 29nm.
After a sleep in the cockpit, in the afternoon l took the tiller pilot apart to see if l could get it working again. The answer was no, the threaded part which screws into the rod, its threads had been stripped either end and it was jamming. I thought l might be able to buy the parts to fix. But since it was a really old unit (20-25 years) I think its possibly done really well to last so long, and a new unit would be a good idea.
Love Sailing 