Ustica, 35 miles north of western Sicily
Favignana, with the old tuna factory in the background
Murphys' Law came into force when it started to rain, fortunately not for long.
Over the last couple of days a fault developed with the engine start system and often nothing would happen for the first couple of key turns, then suddenly it would work normally and start. Brooke checked every electrical connection and there was no
improvement, so we decided to get an auto-electrician to have a look. I went over all the fibreglass with a rust remover, as Cristina had many rust specks after a winter next to a boatyard in Trapani. It came up like new so we were all pleased, and it only remained to polish it all on a quiet day.
The electric refrigerator and freezer have impressed us, as both
work well and are really cold. The freezer has a storage plate and only operates when the engine or generator is running or we are plugged into shore power.
The auto-electrician came and identified a relay just before the
start solenoid. He replaced the 20 amp Yanmar relay with an 80 amp Volvo one and all seemed to work fine. We will replace it with the genuine part when we find one. We were now close to leaving Italy. We sailed 20 miles on a
cracking beat to the north of Crotone and were due to sail 57 miles across to the bottom of the heel of Italy to a place called Gallipoli (not the Anzac one in Turkey) as we heard it was well worth a visit and then on to Santa Maria di Leuca, where we were to leave Greece and the island of Corfu.
VIP.S72 July/August 2011 Professional Skipper r 33
