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During the lull John decided to have a bath. I tried to mend the sails and Arthur removed the starter motor to see what was wrong. During this operation the live wire from the battery touched the oil filter and blew a hole in it. As we could not find any solder we decided to put in to Hartlepool to buy a new filter. Arthur and Alan went off in the inflatable pushed along by the new Seagull while John and I sailed towards the harbour. The wind got up so we got there first and anchored as the dinghy drew up. We met the Tees Sailing Club commodore who gave us a lot of help in finding our replacement. This we fitted and the engine wouldn’t start due to low batteries. As there was a little wind and a reasonable forecast I decided to sail on – a bad decision as the wind died and we spent the night drifting among ships anchored south of Hartlepool. We did see HMS Warrior. She was being refitted. In the photograph the workmen fitting the rigging to the mainmast can be seen. Arthur was able to evade the monkey-hangers and John took a photograph of the sunset. After 11 hours we had covered 2 nautical miles. The wind arrived NE force 1. Light winds took us past Whitby, Scarborough and Flamborough Head where we had the foresail goose-winged and the cruising chute pulling us along in a NE force 3. Alan saw a seal.
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