19.07.82N 40.42.00W
We have managed to keep up reasonable average speeds
despite very light winds and our autopilot problem. We have done 139 nm, and 134
nm over the past 2 days. Due to the light wind and issues we have motored and
motor-sailed rather a lot putting on 34 engine hours, although much of this was
at 1400 revs, so not using too much diesel.
The autopilot problem turned out to be a breakage in the
large stud on the steering quadrant that the autopilot ram connects to. It looks
like the weld has failed and there is no way to fix it or even to have a work
around as the force involved from the hydraulic ram is extremely high. If there
is 10 knot of wind or more then the Windpilot can do the steering, but if the
wind is very light and we are motoring, then we now have to hand steer. This is
of course very tedious and tiring, but not a great issue, we hand steered all
the way across the Atlantic in 2003, although it was a bit easier as there was 3
of us on board. This is the problem that Pete & Carol on Bali Blue had in
the Indian Ocean, although we were on hand to tow them overnight, when the wind
dropped.
Yesterday we had a good sail through the day with the
cruising chute up and bright sunshine and had a really good
time.
We are now well over half way with less than 1250 miles
to go, We will continue to use the engine to keep our speed up as we now want to
keep the number of nights of hand steering to a minimum. We expect to get to
Antigua by the 15th, but of course there is a long way to go and who
knows what the weather etc will do. We almost have enough diesel to motor all
the way if we need to, but surely we must get some days with reasonable
wind.
We saw 2 other yachts on the AIS but only got
information on one – a 53’ British boat which is also sailing independently of
the ARC.
All is well on
board.
