Christmas Day -- bah humbug!

Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Sat 25 Dec 2010 17:12
 
13.54.876N    044.18.283W
 
It was an unruly night; not because the crew were up to high jinks but because the sea was all over the place and the wind kept varying in strength which combined was not conducive to a good night's sleep!
However after a good breakfast of bacon , egg, beans and the last of the Stornoway Black Pudding washed down with Buck's Fizz everyone was on great form and opened presents. The crew were just contemplating a lazy day ( as opposed to all the other days ) when with a loud graunching noise the 'old' autopilot gave up the ghost. Once again the prospect of hand steering the remaining 1000 miles was not attractive so I removed the old drive motor and stripped it down. Worn out plastic cogs was the problem and despite a valiant attempt by John and Maitland to make a new one it was not to be. So back to the faulty hydraulic ram and I removed the bypass valve and drained dirt and poor oil from the system. Although 7 years old this was delivered as a sealed unit so presumably this was introduced at the manufacturing stage; ignoring the ridculously complex instructions for bleeding the system I improvised as I added fresh oil and as I write this with fingers crossed the hydraulic linear drive is steering us on course -- time will tell if it lasts.
Hot and sweaty (30 degs in the cabin ) and clutching a beer when the vhf suddenly comes to life as a French catamaran has caught us up and calls for a chat -- the first yacht we have seen since we left Mindelo.
Christmas Dinner is scottish smoked trout followed by turkey, vegetables and Christmas pudding!
Apologies for the lack of photos but they do slow up the satelitte connection so we promise a bumper pictorial edition when we get back to wifi!
Thank you for all the xmas e mails received.
 
 
Merry Christmas from us all!