Christmas Day -- bah humbug!
Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Sat 25 Dec 2010 17:12
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!
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