Ad Lib 17

 

  

Stargazer revels in the breeze that she has waited so long for. Her skipper delights in having cheated the Sovereign harbour bar. Slipping out with the keel lightly stirring its silt. We are hard on the wind, headed for Dieppe.

Until our trusty autopilot utters a plaintive electronic bleep. Before falling silent. Stargazer rounds up into the wind, sails flogging. Her skipper tries a system power on power off. Several times. With increasing urgency. To no avail. At Beachy Head, we turn and retrace our steps. Reluctantly.

Back alongside, investigations begin. The system's black box brain is mounted below the stores stacked in Stargazer's aft cabin 'garage.'.

Once accessed, it shows a reasurringly steady green LED. As it should. All appears well, with this part of the system.

However, beneath the sole boards of the saloon, the gyro compass lies dark. With no sign of a green glow from the LED on its top surface.. Indicating that this is the likely seat of our problem. A theory corroborated by the three dashes, instead of a compass angle, on the cockpit display, 

Psi Paul has thus far led this investigation by phone. Stargazer's electronically inept skipper doing his bidding. But we have now reached the limit of this approach. 

Fortunately (Chatham based) Psi Paul is able to recommend (Brighton based) PTmarine Paul. To determine whether the compass malfunction is due to component failure, communications discontinuity, or power supply interruption. He hopes to take a preliminary look, on the way back from a pre booked job, tomorrow evening.