We’ve managed to sail ourselves into a patch of light winds smack in the middle of the traditional NE trades.

We motored for a couple hours in the afternoon and we’re lucky enough to sail most of the night until about 10 am when the engine came back on again.

It’s not that I mind the lower speeds of low wind sailing, it’s more that this boat has so much clanging and bashing with the in mast furler and large and generally heavy head sail. If we don’t have 8-10 kts apparent wind the sails don’t stay full and it is very trying on my nerves.

Next time round I think I’ll need to work out a bullet proof low wind sail solution. Asunto is so versatile in 18-20 plus kts of wind fit is great, but in anything under 12 kts I just find it very agonizing.

But we are getting close! I can feel that we are getting within striking distance.

Position update at 1200 local time April 8, 2016:
20 28.192 N
144 36.389 W
148 nautical mile noon to noon run
704 nautical miles to destination
6.5 Kt. SOG
282 COG

Well I am happy to report that nothing broke in the last 24 hours!

We had a slower than anticipated run but we are still on track. We were able to sail all night however the wind angles kept shifting and the wind speed has been constantly dropping over the last 12 hours.

It really is amazing how much I took our autopilot for granted. I had read all these accounts of people naming their autopilots or wind vanes because they were such an important part of the crew and other reports of people have hour after hour of autopilot woes and I just didn’t get it. Our autopilot system had been nothing but reliable for as long as we had owned the boat.

When we bought the boat it had an Autohelm setup from Raytheon / Raymarine that we used for a number of years. Two years ago I updated all the electronics on board and put in a new B&G course computer, rudder indicator and gyro compass, however I decided to leave the ram because a) it was still a current Raymarine part and b) it was is stalled in the bowels of the lazarret and c) it seemed to sail the boat well and I felt that some of the older Raytheon stuff was built pretty well.

I’m glad I kept the ram and I like the setup as it does seem to work well for our boat, however I do wish I had bought that used spare to keep on board as it is A LOT more work to hand steer for 8 days on end, but we’ll make it, we always do!

Position update at 1200 local time April 7, 2016:
19 53.884 N
142 02.816W
149 nautical mile noon to noon run
853 nautical miles to destination
4.0 Kt. SOG
293 COG

After our first night of had steering, which went real well, we awoke to lighter winds in the 12-13 it range and I decided to hoist the spinnaker. We were sailing along for about two hours on the kite at 130 degrees apparent wind when all of a sudden the boat rounded up and there was a subtle pop and the boat flattened out.

Unfortunately this flattening out was not a good thing because the head of the sail had ripped out and the sail was flying by the amsteel sewn into the luff of the sail. We rushed to get the sail down but but the time we got it back on board the amsteel had ripped out of the sail almost to the tack.

We went back to our furling headsail and it looks like that is what we will be on for the rest of the trip.

On a side note, I did attempt to repair the autopilot. George and I had to replace all the ball bearings that flew out when I took the ram apart which took most of our time. We then tried to epoxy putty some of the gears that were stripped (on the electro magnetic clutch) and I fought my way back I into he transom to reinstall the ram and test the repair.

**** funny story**** a 6’6″ man weighing 240 pounds does not fit very well into a space 18″ high x 24″ wide at the very back of the boat behind the generator, scuba compressor, water maker and steering gear, and I have the welts and scratches to prove it.

Once we had the ram reinstalled we tried it but the fix did not hold. The ram went in and out but could not hold the pressure of the rudder when the ram was not working in or out.

Kristine is going to look at getting it overhauled in Hawaii or possibly getting a new one and getting this unit overhauled in future.

Position update at 1200 local time April 6, 2016:
19 01.110 N
139 33.609 W
158 nautical mile noon to noon run
1011 nautical miles to destination
6.5 Kt. SOG
285 COG