Keith and Emily on EmilyLuna and Dick and Laura on Maia were both in touch yesterday offering help and support on the rudder issue. I was also in touch with Dan, the Malo agent in the UK, and he gave helpful advice. After yesterday’s post we emptied out the rear lazarette and gained access to the the rudder stock and steering mechanism. We have a Jefa system which is a metal rod connecting a rotating arm beneath the steering wheel with an arm on the rudder stock. There is only half a metre between the wheel and rudder so the this system offers a direct, robust, relatively easily accessible connection. With all the parts in view we rotated the steering wheel and everything seemed exactly as it should be! Not a squeak of resistance until we turned the wheel fully to starboard and the noise and resistance was there, sounding like it was coming from the binnacle (raised stand on which the wheel is mounted). Left, right, fast, slow - all smooth. So, we definitely have an issue that we think is within the binnacle but that may not manifest itself until the wheel is turned fully. However, we also think we first experienced the problem with less than a full turn of the wheel so we have to be aware this may happen again.

When I filmed the rudder with the GoPro earlier in the day, hanging from the swimming platform on the stern, the noise when turning the wheel was louder even than within the cockpit suggesting an external source such as a rudder bearing. However, a source of noise can be infuriatingly difficult to pinpoint and it could have been resonating from the lazarette. Boats do tend to act like floating soundboxes. From what we have seen and heard we are going with the binnacle as the source. Dan kindly sent us the link to drawings on a website because there is nothing in the original manuals to tell us how the wheel is connected to the rotating arm at the bottom. However, accessing a website from the boat opens us up to yet more horrendous charges for satellite data so we will wait until we have a wifi connection. I’m not sure trying to take the binnacle off or even apart on passage is wise, even if we knew what the problem is and had the wherewithal to fix it.

So, what are options? Firstly continue to use the Hydrovane when sailing. As it has a separate rudder this could be used when motoring but requires sitting on the transom for manual steering. The second is to keep using the wheel when required, gently and without fully turning it in the hope that this will get us to Antigua where we can sort out whatever the problem is. The third is, when motoring, to use the autopilot on a low sensitivity setting so that it is not making constant adjustments to our course or turning the wheel too much. Furthermore, the autopilot is connected directly to the rudder stock meaning that if turning the wheel is a problem we can disconnect the steering rod (and hence the wheel) at the rudder stock and the autopilot can then run unimpeded. Fourthly once the wheel is disconnected we can attach the emergency tiller onto the rudder stock and have manual steering plus the autopilot.

Having a problem with the rudder was a bit of a shock but at least we have a plan now to manage things.

Yesterday evening we were visited by what looked like a medium sized black land bird that we assumed was exhausted and hundreds of miles from where it should be. After several attempts to find a perch it eventually landed on the bimini and we were please to be a source of rest for the poor creature. From time to time it croaked a call, pining we assumed for its long lost friends. On the midnight watch change Annie reported that we had been invaded by more of these birds, noisily squabbling over the available roosts and clearly not exhausted. In fact two of them were talking noisily on the solar panel before having a quick shag (to keep the ornithological context going). By the morning the cockpit was smelling of sea birds and the bimini and solar panel covered in guano. We won’t be so charitable this evening.