Well be careful what you ask for. We got more wind, and in the afternoon even more. The forecast was for 15-20 knots which we got and then it built to 25 we discussed it and wanted to be cautious so we went to put in the number 2 reef. (Number one shortens the sails a little bit and number two a lot) That would have us reefed well down for the afternoon and into the evening and night so that we could be sure to be under control.

Well as we were cranking in the line for the number 2 reef, it failed, so we could only have a number one reef. We decided that at minimum we needed to put in to shore as we could cope with what we had, but none of us wanted to attempt the crossing without being able to reef well down to minimum canvas. As it happened, later the wind climbed on up towards 30.

During the festivities with the reefing line, I got a thump on the back of the head as the reef line popped by hitting my head on the boom (the horizontal beam attached to mast, the vertical pole that makes the triangle of the main sail)

As we were sailing back ,I noticed two screws had worked themselves loose from the gooseneck (where the boom attaches to the mast.) I was on the helm so Steve handily grabbed a screwdriver and calmly drove them back in.

Boat ownership by remote control has a few things in the negative column I've got to tell you.

The gooseneck had been taken apart by some "repairmen" and not properly re-assembled. The reefing line had been screwed up by these same clowns.

There are few other bits and pieces that I won't go into but the bottom line is this:

We have scrubbed the trip.

The mood is pretty grim here as we were all looking forward to this. It is just that the boat has thrown us so many surprises in just a few days (that we have been able to cope with generally), but it doesn't give us with the confidence to continue. We are all gutted about it but unanimous in our conclusion.

More later

Penguin and all aboard.