On taking the mainsail down the night before we found that the slider for the bottom batten was broken. It had lost a part, either broken or shaken loose. Richard spent the morning hunting for a suitable spare part amongst his various nuts and bolts but none seemed to fit so he emailed the maker of the fittings to try to source some spares and ordered some nuts and bolts to use as a fall back repair. Of course no replies expected on a weekend. By this time we had looked at the forecast and unless we left straight away, or tomorrow, a passage around Land’s End was not looking hopeful as the wind would still be southwesterly and “on the nose” for the remainder of the week and very strong at times. We were tired and din’t fancy another 100 mile plus passage straight away.
So after doing a few further minor maintenance jobs we decided we would leave Harvard in Milford Haven and go home for a short time. Unfortunately the Severn rail tunnel is being closed for 16 days for maintenance making coming back to Milford Haven tricky, so against our “hippy, tree hugging” principles we decided to hire a car. This has the added advantage that, as we have lent our car to daughter Charlotte, we would at least have transport available at home. Booking the car and talking to the marina meant we had used most of the rest of the day so we stayed at anchor for another night.