13/7/10 - UTC 12.00 - 32.30S 172.52E - self rescued!
Flying Cloud
Julian Nichols
Tue 13 Jul 2010 11:27
Back to the rudder lockers I went, Harry called the waves, and pretty quickly the problem - and the solution - became apparent. The tillers had worked loose on the rudder stocks! Perhaps because of the new bearings I had had fitted in Auckland, perhaps they had never been done up tight enough, perhaps the grub screws didn't align with anything anymore. Anyway at 04.30 UTC i was able to ask the Pacific Independence to stand down. We were making 5knots under our own power towards NZ.
The weather remained bad, but we cooked steak for dinner and life felt better. For more than one nasty minute today I had faced the prospect of leaving my boat / watching it get ripped apart in some crazy tow!
For the 2nd time in the trip we had a little happy hour to celebrate!