In the few days since our arrival in Seville I have been able to look back on Aventura Zero’s maiden voyage and the overall conclusion is that it has been a very useful and successful passage.
Aventura behaved impeccably and covered over 1000 miles without any serious problems. We survived four days of calms while continuing with a normal life onboard. At the end of that spell we had sufficient battery capacity to motor or motor-sail against a 1.5 to 2 knot current to make it to Ceuta. We recharged the batteries and continued through the Strait of Gibraltar and completed a 55-mile trip up the Guadalquivir River in 10 hours, maintaining an average speed of over 6 knots, helped by a favourable current of 1 to 2 knots and sailing much of the time. We even managed to regenerate electricity when we were sailing, and succeeded in arriving in Seville on one tide.
Less than two days later, while docked at Seville Yacht Club, we were woken in the middle of the night by a loud noise. I thought I saw a flash from the nearby power column on the quay behind us, but as everything around us seemed to be OK, we went back to bed. It was only in the morning, as we were preparing the boat to move across the river to our assigned place, that we noticed that the motor controls had been damaged. The yacht club manager confirmed that the shore power supply had tripped for some unknown reason, and presumed that a surcharge of electricity had travelled through the water and caused the damage to the Oceanvolt system. No other system onboard was affected.
Outremer was prompt in sending someone to assess the damage. Raphael Pierrot set about to check all other systems and found that they were all working. From their base in Finland, Oceanvolt has been monitoring online their propulsion and regeneration system and discussed with Raphael which damaged parts needed to be replaced. It will take a few days to send all parts to Seville, for a specialist to fly over, install them and recommission the system, so we may not be able to leave before early next week. Not a propitious sign at the start of our voyage but… c’est la vie!
Since our arrival the New Zealand-made lightweight Offshore Cruising Tender™ has been put to good use crossing the river several times a day between the yacht club dock, where wifi coverage is very poor, to the Navy headquarters on the opposite bank, where I now have my temporary office and a good internet connection.
From the moment of our arrival, Captain Javier Albert Perez, the Naval Commander of Seville, has taken us under his care and done everything possible to make our stay as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.
The Elcano Challenge and the forthcoming voyage of Aventura Zero have struck a chord at the highest levels of the Spanish Navy who has taken us under its protective wing. It cannot get better than this.
