Firstly, a very sincere apology to Kim for nearly squashing her today coming into the marina! Not the best approach ever and had been going around in circles most of the afternoon (see below) which meant we had to abandon our proposed trip to San Sebastian!..

Having spent alot of time and effort (not to mention expense!) getting the boat ready for this trip, buying the best equipment (and most reliable we were assured) we have hit something of a problem:-

Only 2 years and 4 months ago I bought the following assured that it was the best plus went the extra mile in terms of spec (which also means price) as any cruiser will tell you a reliable autopilot is essential for decent passage making:-

Raymarine: Smartpilot system Type 2 Linear Drive £1,350 plus custom made plates for mounting (£???), SPX30 Corepack £1,500, ST6002 head unit £350

V disappointed that it's stopped working when we're conveniently sailing Northern Spain!!! Oh and the good news is I bought Raymarine C90w chatplotter (£1,500+) and Raymarine A50 (£550) at same time so I really hope they're not going to stop working too as we kinda rely on them alot - traditional methods always the best it seems despite what the 'trade' with multimillion pound marketing tell you! (only Nav aids obviously).

Spoke to Raymarine product support (and Colin at Darthaven who was v helpful) and Raymarine have sent me an email with some tests to do (have already tried recalibrating hence the going round in circles) and the good news is that if it is the 'gyro' (the all singing all dancing the marketing literature assures you) then it may be more cost effective to just buy a new X30 computer - I said how much is that? Answer: £1,800!! (gulp!) To be fair to the guy he was trying his best and we haven't given up yet (talking to some people here and emailing Raymarine back) but seriously.....the word disappointed doesn't cover it. And to think that I decided to buy Raymarine as wanted to support a British company (kinda) rather than an American one and all the assurances received.....(I may have felt like chucking the Raymarine kit rather than fork out another £1,800 for something that may or may not last just over 2 years!

Oh well nevermind at least the sun is out (again) and it's been a nice day other than that! Lol We like this place Hondaribbia and everyone is trying to help us and are very friendly.