Taking stock.
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Fri 27 May 2011 07:05
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Friday 27th May 1145 Local Time 0645
UTC
07:51.978S 069:38.632E
Yesterday morning after an easy start and a couple
of visitors in the anchorage we hauled anchor and eyeballed our way through
the atoll to the down wind reef pass.
Those in the anchorage keep in touch with those
that have departed to Thailand, Rodriguez, Mauritius and Madagascar by HF
Radio on a morning and evening schedule. Lots of take grib files daily,
through pactor modem and HF Radio, some showing the sea state. So the talk all
round the anchorage has been about the poor conditions and horrible seas and
people delaying departures etc etc. I did not really want Trish hearing all
this but it could not be avoided. Some people had been in teh anchorage for
months and it was a real big deal for them to leave. They are all mostly
cruisers too so they are not on such a tight schedule as we are.
So we were headed out into lumpy confused seas and
expected to have it rough for a couple of days. The wind at twenty knots
and ocean swell was expected to be right across our beam. Now for Rhiann
Marie this means because of our boat speed the apparent wind will be right
forward and we will be fairly hard on the wind.
And so it was that we cleared the reef about
1035 and got all sail up. The plan was to sail conservatively on this passage
trying to make the boat as comfortable as possible as opposed to as fast as
possible. So once out of the lee of the atoll I put a roll in the main and also
the Jib which we were flying. Later I put a second one in each and eased the
main down the track. Speeds were rarely below 8.5 knots and often 9.5
knots.
The passage has been boisterous so
far.
This morning for the first time in a long while I
lay in the aft cabin when the boat was sailing at speed in an ocean swell.
I was sure I did not recognise some of the sounds emanating from the rudder
drive compartment behind our head board.
Having been concerned about the amount of backlash
and play developing in our steering for some time I decided not to delay till
the planned inspection in Mauritius and strip down the compartment to access it
immediately.
It was a good job I did. The bearing mounting at
the rudder stock head was loose and slopping around. On inspection I am not even
convinced of its robustness however by first loosening the nuts and bolts in my
back I was able to twist and bend into the compartment to tighten up the bolts
in the bearing mounting. Phew!!!
There are however a couple of other bits of play
and noises in there I am not happy with so further inspection is
required.
That's all to report for today. We hope to complete
the 1250 mile passage in 6 days since we are sailing conservatively. My
preference is to do it with the rudder still attached to the boat. We have 206
miles done for the 24
hours.
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