Despite our enthusiasm, Ray the trusty autopilot wasn’t on board. About an hour past Pittwater the hydraulic arm gave up and a crew conference decided we were best to head back to Pittwater where there was a specialist Raymarine service centre. Dan from BME in Newport couldn’t have been more helpful; organising a berth in his marina for the night and in an hour had both the hydraulic arm and the wiring issues fixed. If you ever need help with marine electronics, can’t recommend him enough. Unfortunately it means we’ve missed the weather window we were hoping for and probably won’t get to Coffs before the strong southerly front. We’ll leave today and see how far we get by tomorrow afternoon; possibly/probably pulling in to either Port Stephens or Port Macquarie to sit out the front.
