L'Eau Commotion Westabout

Well that's it for another year. Just too many things gone wrong to continue. Thought I was all snugged down this morning with just the double reefed main up and the two headsails furled . With the winds at gale force from the Northwest was on a comfortable offshore tack when the dreaded flapping in the upper section of the jib started and there was no way to furl further or drop the sail before it managed to start tearing itself to bits. Only by allowing a fair amount of free sheet the sail eventually unwound off the forestay so that it could be lowered whilst heading for Albany to sort out the rest of the things that need doing. Found the electric auto pilot is not working and also got a bit of a scare trying to put the engine into gear as the cables seemed to have seized. Applied the maximum force thought advisable and was relieved to get the the gears to work without breaking anything. Plan to stay offshore till early morning as there are quite a few rocks and islands to avoid in the Albany outer harbour. Just in the last few hours the winds have dropped below gale force so hope to get the staysail up for a quiet quartering run to keep clear of the lumpy bits.