The text message I had been waiting for for over 24 hours has just arrived.

Having been towed to the fishing port of Camarinas in northern Spain, at considerable cost, an engineer had been called to assess the problem. After a very anxious night and day I was relieved to learn that the boat has been fixed. The fault appears to have been a clogged fuel filter. Despite being replaced at the last service the opinion is that low fuel levels in the tank combined with a severe shake up in rough weather had caused residue from the tank to pass through the system. An engineer's bill of 100 euros seems to have done the trick and all is now working.

Not such good news regarding weather tho’. The met office shipping forecast for the area early this morning gave northerly 8 to 9, possibly 10 later. Sea state “high”. Needless to say the crew are staying put until a more favourable weather forecast on Saturday morning. I, for one, will sleep a lot easier tonight. This is worse than having teenage kids!!