Failing Electronics

Tech is great...until it doesn't work.

We set sail north from Zadar early Saturday afternoon, to a bay just off the town of Rab. We sailed cautiously, as our wind instrument wasn’t working. Three dashed lines was all it would display. Being as our autopilot computer had just failed (we were able to purchase a spare while in Zadar), this was a bad sign.

About a mile out from Zadar, Jared went below to check for corrosion on the wires. All of a sudden, everything went dark. We had blown a fuse in the process.

Matthew was with me at the helm, and so I put him on watch, meaning he also had to hand-steer our course. We have a backup chart on our iPad, which came in handy. I went down below to see if I could help Jared. The wires behind the nav station were all fine, and same for the wires at the base of the mast. The blown fuse was replaced and everything came back on line, including the wind display.

However, a few minutes later, it was back to those dashed lines again. We knew then that our system was starting to fizzle out and we would be breaking out another boat buck to replace it. It seems that for a boat 6 years old, we shouldn't be having these issues. At this point, she is practically brand new with all the upgrades and repairs we have done over the past 7 months! At least we now know every inch of her and that all the work has been done as it should.

View of Roundabout at anchor from the top of the fort.

We arrived to our anchorage five hours later, dropped the hook, and Jared went up the mast to see if the issue was at the top. Nope, those wires were clean and looked really good, so it must be the display itself. I searched online and did all the tests mentioned, including a reset, and no joy. We would be buying a replacement kit. Fortunately, there are a couple of Raymarine dealers in our area, so hopefully we can have this task completed in the next day or so.

Wandering around Rab town.

More of the town.

Interesting! 

Enjoying the sights and cooling off with frozen treats.

We decided to check out the old town of Rab since we were in the area. What a beautiful place! It is so green! Huge trees spread out to shade the walking paths, landscaped gardens show off vibrant colors, and the medieval architecture is stunning. We wandered around for most of the day, stopping only to cool off in the sea.


Later that afternoon, we hauled anchor and sailed on to Punat, which is the town next to a very shallow lagoon. The charts stated that the entrance is dredged to 5m but it was mostly around 2m or so. The shallowest spot we saw was 1.8 (our draft is 1.5), yikes! If you decide to visit this lagoon, exercise caution and stick to the channel. It's easily seen in bright daylight.

After quite a show put on by mother nature (lots of thunder and lightning), we woke up early to make the rest of the way towards Rijeka. We are picking up mail and hopefully, our cargo here. It's also the location of the Raymarine dealer we need to visit.

Constantly on the lookout for fishing gear left out in random places.

We motored most of the way, due to lack of wind. The final hour, as we were approaching the marina, we turned off the engines and let the sails do their job. Speeding along at 8 knots felt wonderful! We had no sooner tied up then Jared was off to the chandlery to pick up our new electronics. The store hours were extended just for him and we were so grateful for this! We really need our wind instrument functioning!

So for tonight, we will enjoy the unlimited power and water (a/c on full blast), give the boat a deep clean, get all our washing done, and stock up before we head over to Venice in the coming week or so (waiting on a good weather window).

The perfect tree for climbing! This was in one of the gardens near the fortress.