Crash Gybe!
18 August 2014 | Ocean Village, Gibraltar

Shortly after Bob on Quintessa recommended the Raymarine engineer in Gibraltar we thought we might need this guy.
After waiting for the wind to fill in we shipped out of Cartagena and headed south initially thinking Almerimar as a quick overnighter.
However, just a few miles out of Cartagena we noticed we were heading for Greece rather than south. The violent shaking of the rig and sales was the clue.
For some reason, our Raymarine self steering had packed up. We switched it back on and off we went. "Brilliant" I thought. That was a quick fix. However, 5 minutes later, same deal......and this continued for the next 42 hours.
The first 24 hours was great. A solid 8-10 knots all the way and we might have set a record, 177 miles in 24 hours. Given the steering situation we should have stopped at Almerimar. However, we rocketed past at 9 knots about 3am and a night approach with a 3 metre swell wasn't that motivating. Also, with the recommendation of a wonder technician in Gibraltar, we pressed on.
At some time during the night we gybed. Didn't mean to but the steering gave up and before we knew it we crash gybed. Ironically, the only casualty was the Scott Boomlock. The expensive, gybe prevention bit of kit I bought a few years ago. Completely useless. It hangs there for three years, tripping you up on its lines as you go up the side decks then, the moment you need it to do its job it simply disintegrates.
Compounding our woes, it seemed like someone had tied a long piece of elastic too us in Cartagena. As we got closer to Gibraltar we got slower and slower. Not only was the wind dying but there was a two knot current against us. The pilot books say the Med is 1 metre lower than the Atlantic owing to evaporation.
The result is this flood of water into the med. Most of it under our keel. We slowed to an agonising 2-3 knots and so, after setting our 24 hour fastest record we proceeded to set the slowest.
Eventually we got into Gib, tied up and went looking for Tim, the Raymarine magician.
Good news is we found him, between jobs and within two hours we had a new motor so hopefully fixed and ready to rock and roll.