It was going well as I was sailing from Mallorca and was thinking just to go pass by South of Sardegna to get phone signal to download latest weathercast and move on...
It was 2 AM (in the morning obviously...). The moon went over horizon and it became quite dark. I decided that it is enough to play with self steering windvane. It was working already half a day. And it was becoming gusty (I didn't want to reduce the sails because I like speed...). I just needed to switch to autopilot and go to sleep. But... Rudder angle in displays was static. Sh#$!. Autopilot is gone...
Luckily the wind became more stable and I was able to use windvane again. And after taking everything from lazaret I found this.
Autopilot's arm is broken via welding junction. Why? Because I am stupid! Especially when tired but full of determination.
It took ages to unscrew all bolts (some corosion didn't help) and I got sea sick while sitting inside lazaret head down while sailing. But finally I made it. Just had to check if I got all tools to make temporary fix and went to sleep just a little. Because the nearest land was still 15 hours away and I will have to helm quite a lot!
So I've made something out of it.
And it broke. Obviously.
Of course. The better way would have been to reduce the sails and just go into heaving-to position while I am resting. But I liked that speed Alka was achieving. And I was stupid :)
And I got into here. It feels lonely... Because it is early season.
Price rates are really good. But only for low season :)
In the marina office they were really helpful and called to welder to make sure he is working on Saturday in the Teulada town (which is 8km away). And with good news I went. Nice views. Good exercise on my folding bicycle. With that excitement and I made it pretty fast.
But it looked dead.
And welding place was closed! So I rang the nearest door bell to ask about it. But the woman who opened the door said that the man is now in another town and will be here only on Monday... No!...
It was really disappointing. All that way coming here for nothing. Of course she barely spoke English and I barely speak Italian. But in the marina they called and told me that he is available!
After couple of minutes standing near it and thinking what to do next she came out and told me to wait and called another guy. Who came out from another next door eating apple and told me to follow him.
And he did amazing job! Just for 10 euros!
We are good baby!
I spoke with Alka and we have decided that we are leaving this evening towards Sicily. Because, why not? And she likes surfing down 3-4 meter waves :)
