13:00.38N 61:14.50W

We were advised by a Lewmar Agent in England not to cross the Atlantic with that knocking we had in the steering, especially when the autopilot was on. Well we tried to do it in Mindelo but the set up there did not give us confidence to do such crucial work. We bought the bearings there and knew this work needed to be done. Rodney Bay Marina was promising.

Patrick and Amanda (Egret) have been here for 3 weeks now to sort out their major work on their new rudder and were very helpful with information and support. It took 3 ½ days of hard work and manpower to take everything apart, go to a local workshop to get the old bearings off and then rebuild the whole system back together.

STAGE 1:  Patrick and Paul

Then with German neighbor Georg

Underneath everything was well apart but on deck things needed a lot of banging and pulling.

Making room for one job means mess somewhere else on the boat!  We are supposed to sleep here every night!

STAGE 2:

At the yard they took on the job on the day and did excellent work!

Paul thought he had retired…

 Lots of waterproof grease!

STAGE 3:    

Putting everything back together, rewiring and testing to see all systems work took a lot of concentrating, we felt like back in time, when we were building Kahia…

A perfect job done!

While we worked in the cockpit our German neighbours, Andrea and Georg worked on the rigging, that’s cruising! “It’s a hobby” says Georg.

The Autopilot also steers to the wind but the wind instrument did not work since we arrived in the Caribbean! So up the mast on day 4:

Almost 2 hrs up a 16 meter pole swaying in the wind… what a hobby…

The wind instrument is still playing up, but Paul also rigged lines down the mast steps, so halyard can’t get caught anymore.

We anchored another two days in the bay to get the boat back together and rest.

It was lovely to have Patrick and Amanda over for a meal and catch up on more news.