Equipment Resumée - 28th April
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Fri 28 Apr 2017 22:39
It is so long since either of us steered by hand we have almost forgotten what that is like! We switch between the autohelm and Hydrovane to suit the conditions. Vega rolls with the waves and has a tendency to luff up in the gusts. If the steering wheel is firmly held with bungees or lines then the Hydrovane is fine but we get more oscillation around our course than with the autohelm. This is not so good with the cruising chute which collapses fairly easily if the course changes so at the moment we are using the autohelm.
Today we are flying the cruising chute with reefed mainsail and sailing at 5.7kts in 10kts of wind! Wonderful cruising and just the conditions we like. It took us an hour to sort out all the twists and tangles with the sail which was frustrating but worth it. We just have to work out how to lower and stow it in a way that doesn't introduce more tangles for next time!
The log wheel that measures our speed through the water is playing up. It is reading 2.5kts less than our course over ground. Unless we have 2kts of current with us it looks like it needs a clean and/or calibration. I'll take it out and clean it this afternoon.
The water maker is giving us the most angst. The reply from the supplier suggests either of two valves is likely to be the problem. This is what I feared because the watermaker is located in the cupboard under the sink and awkward to get at. It would be better to take it out but this means disconnecting the water inlet and outlet. Both are below the waterline and we would need to close two seacocks while working on the watermaker. Furthermore our saloon "workbench" is not the steadiest work platform at the moment! As an exercise it isn't a bad thing to be doing but our inclination is to preserve water and wait until we are on an anchorage. Just typical that this happens the one time we could really be using it! We are using seawater for washing up.
In the Galápagos we found that one of the four bolts attaching the the flexible joint between the gearbox and propshaft had come loose. Removing the flexible joint to get at the bolt head was proving a problem until we had good technical advice from the UK - hit it with a mallet. Great advice and it worked a treat. I keep an eye on the offending bolt and it remains tight so far........
Touch wood everything else seems to be working without a problem. The twist in the reeling line in the boom will need rectifying but we can work around it for the moment. I did lose our bucket over the side when the knot holding the dipping line came undone but have made up a sufficiently robust alternative bucket. The laptop doesn't seem such a loss now that we can access Passageweather charts on Annie's laptop. Annie's iPad is behaving itself and sending and receiving emails which means I can make these posts!