A Salutary Lesson

If one of your winter jobs was to update the software of your instruments, you would do well to note my recent experience.

Having been pleased to have navigated the myriad of menus within my instrument system and successfully updated the software through an internet connection, I was a little smug about having the latestĀ ā€˜all singing and dancingā€™ instruments on what was already an impressive system. I consequently looked forward to a quick overnight trip to the Isle of Wight to attend a talk at my sailing club.

It being the first of March, I found myself single handing which is usually an enjoyable experience. Solo sailing does rely more than usual on the Auto and I know I should not have used it in the marina but I just needed to make an adjustment in preparation for entering the marina lockā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦..

Hand steering all the way I was relieved to successfully re-commission the system at my destination.

RVYC on an earlier, crewed occasion.

It seems that all of the settings were lost in the update and I will always check this and more in the future.

Thankfully, my return passage was incident free and a delightful sail.

The churned up and uneven bottom at the RVYC. The ramp for loading the larger IOW ferries can be seen in the background.
The RVYC pontoon used to be an ideal location for drying out
Big squeeze leaning against the pontoon at the RVYC.
Soft but uneven bottom with the skeg buried in the mud. This is the peculiar but brilliant Bruntons Autoprop which self pitches and is extremely efficient when motor sailing.

One thought on “A Salutary Lesson

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  1. Hi Nick
    We were interested to read about your experience. Was it Raymarine?
    I ask because our Autohelm suddenly failed and the heading remained stubbornly at 248Ā°
    The local technician in Antigua suggested it was the course computer but when we fixed the corroded connection, all was well.
    It occurred to us that instead of making a hard turn to port if the system fails, Raymarine really should install an audible alarm.
    Kind regards
    Jenny & Simon
    Fenicia

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