Day 2 – Challenging Passage

On day 2 the wind picked up to the mid 20s and we made good time. For a while it looked like we had a good chance of making Opua next Wednesday. With reefs in the sails and with regeneration going (I know I said I wouldn’t) we were still making 7.5 knots.The crew were all pretty tired throughout the day. After the first nights incomplete sleep and a touch of the motion sickness for all we spent a lot of the day sleeping so there’s not much to tell.

Until it came to my evening shift. I was happily listening to music when suddenly the boat swung off her course. I tried hand steering and it felt quite odd. Then the auto pilot claimed there was no rudder. I’ve seen similar, but not quite the same symptoms, on our second day out during my Atlantic crossing on Windancer IV. I called Ben up to continue hand steering while I assessed the condition of the port rudder. As suspected the post screwed into the rudder flange which joins the rudder to the autopilot and the steering gear had sheared off, presumably through stress (long term and recent).

It was impossible to work on the problem at night in 15 foot seas so I gathered the crew and informed them of the situation preparing them to hand steer overnight. We could have laid to but we still need to outrun the low developing behind us. During the remainder of my shift I managed to find a sail/wheel lashing combination that allowed the boat to balance around roughly our desired heading albeit at reduced speed. This was sufficient to keep us moving and prevent crew fatigue. Further more it prevented movement of the remaining rudder which I want to minimise. The pole that joins the rudders is now laying on the structure beneath and may catch on something so zero movement prevents any further issues.

Over night I have evaluated the various options available. I have discarded the idea of moving the same post from starboard to port as that would leave us rudderless for a while. Possible in calm conditions but not these. I have a few different ideas of lashing the port assembly back together. Later this morning we’ll drop sails, turn the boat around and lay ahull with the starboard hull presented to the swell. That will allow me to work on the port transom. At worst getting both rudders working again should be straight forward. At best we’ll get the autopilot going as well. We’ll see.

This morning it is markedly colder outside. We no longer sit in shorts and tee-shirts. Now it’s layers of clothing.

748nm to Opua.