Island Kea II - 9th day at sea
Island Kea II
Steve and Katrin Everett
Tue 4 Dec 2007 12:13
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Position as at 12.00 midday UTC 4th of
December
19:43.42N
36:17.21W
Yesterday
was a bit of a strange day. The wind direction changed to South East which
we did not expect. Trade winds are supposed to be consistently
easterly. We studied the weather forecast and decided to head further
south as we figured if we kept heading directly west we would end of with no
wind.
Yesterday
afternoon we had another disappointment. The autopilot stopped working,
and it was not just a bolt this time, but the unit itself has stopped
functioning. This is a new hydrolic drive unit which was only fitted in
July this year. Luckily Steve had insisted on keeping the old one which
was still in workinng order as a spare but never expected to have to fit this at
sea.
Tom was a
real hearo and offered to swap them round whilst under way. After a couple
of happy hours in a deep locker with his head in a small box, we have working
autopilot again. However we have decided to keep this one gently and we
are planning to hand steer 50% of the time. It is better to have it
working some of the time rather than loose it altogether.
We are
currently under jib and Main but hope to get the parasailor or cruising chute up
about midday our time.
We are
currently only doing 4.9 kts but at least we are sailing - we put the engine on
for 1 hr early this morning and now we have fully charged batteries which is
great...
It is
interesting that on a crossing like this we are completly reliant on our own
skills, we have to try to repair everything which goes wrong and keep the yacht
going, no one else will do it for us and it certainly helps to focus the
mind..
Katrin |