37 14N 41 17W Waiting for the sun to shine.
Pipedream
Fri 19 Jun 2009 23:29
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Well I read someplace that it was hard to cross the
Atlantic without going through at least one storm. It started as a chance
to take a fresh water shower on deck and has been raining for about two days
now. We have been running in gale conditions for about a day and a half
now. It gets really interesting at night. Getting everyone to eat
something is a challenge. Cooking is really tough as well. Been pretty
busy. Today we were in the tail end of it. Not much wind anymore but
with some really impressive seas. I would say maybe 15 feet but they
always look bigger from the bottom up.
The biggest casualty was the autopilot died this
morning. At first we thought something had failed in the hydraulic
steering system But after trouble shooting the system it is the rudder
reference sensor. I tried fixing it but there was so much motion
down below I could not work too long. We are going to have to hand steer
the rest of the way.
We elected to heave too tonight a first for us but
the book says no problem. Everyone is pretty wet and tired. Chris
has the watch right now and the rest of us are trying to find dry places to
sleep with the small deck leaks and all the rain gear hanging around down
below. All for now I am also tired... still better than a good day at
work! |