Poole to Dartmouth- No one is steering the boat!!

We set off at 7am with no wind and motoring until lunchtime when the forecast 25kn easterly filled in. At times we were doing over 11kn which made for a fast day.

With 1 reef in the mainsail and the staysail up we were rolling downwind nicely. I was Freezing despite wearing thermals, a mid layer suit plus a jumper under my wet weather gear it was still not enough. My antipodean blood still hasn’t adjusted.

At one point late in the day, Tony headed down below to warm up and decides to take the opportunity to get more understanding of the instruments. I’m keeping watch in the cockpit huddled under the dodger with my feet in the companionway trying to get some warmth from below when I hear the instruments alarm go off. I looked below at the chart plotter and the screen is screaming that the Autohelm is switched off.

NO ONE IS STEERING THE BOAT.

In my panic to get to the wheel, I banged my knee on the cockpit fridge. The pain was insane, once I turned the Autohelm back on I advised Tony that fiddling with the instruments was not a great idea. My knee took about half an hour to return to normal.

Osprey didn’t seem to notice the lack of direction and kept steering on her own despite the 25kn breeze and 2m swell.

We arrived into Dartmouth about 7pm and tied up at the town quay. Within 20 minutes dinner was in the oven, the aircon was blasting out and I’m having the longest hot shower ever. 1000L of water comes in handy.

Dartmouth is lovely we are staying here for a week to do a few boat jobs and explore this area when it stops raining.

It’s been blowing hard and with 4kn currents has lead to some interesting anchoring and boat manoeuvres, all that in the next post.