Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

We plod on. The wind has lightened further and moved more to the north east. That has enabled/required us to hoist the Code Zero. As we’d furled it badly last time it was a bit of an effort to raise it. Once up it did it’s job. Placing some confidence in the weather forecasts we left it up overnight. With occasional pushes from the batteries we are managing to maintain a Thursday evening ETA into Opua. We won’t be able to check in on arrival but we can tie up to the customs dock and have a good nights sleep. I’ve just downloaded the latest forecast and this predicts light north easterlies all the way in. Helen will be pleased.
It is getting very cold now. Night shifts are not something to look forward to. We’ve found some audio books which we’ve been listening to recently which helps pass the time. We’ve seen no other vessels since we fell behind the fleet with our rudder problem. From the positions gathered yesterday we know we’re not at the back. We’ve overhauled two vessels and Sea Mist is still at the back, although catching up quickly. I’m off to watch the glorious sunrise.

207nm to Opua dock.

A very relaxing days sail. The skies were blue and the wind/seas continued to abate. We were treated to gentle sailing across light seas under a 100% blue sky. Beautiful. The only downside was the wind was closer than I wanted to sail so we drifted off course by about 20 degrees.
The steering gear lashup continues to hold well. Inquiring about our replacement charger I have learned Lagoon are also sending a replacement pin for us. That’s nice. It won’t stop me having some spares machined but I appreciate the gesture.

The winds died down overnight and we’ve been motoring since yesterday evening. The winds have clocked round and we’re back on the rhumb line. In fact, they’ve clocked round enough that we may just get the Code Zero out today.

333nm to Opua.

We spent the day hand steering in similar conditions to last reported. As the evening set in the seas and wind calmed a little so during my 8pm to 11m shift I cautiously engaged the autopilot. I checked it after half an hour of use and at the end of my shift and there were no further concerns in terms of integrity of the lashing. There is a couple of cm of give in the lash up which results in some sluggishness with the autopilot. This is in turn making it hard to hold the sailing line which is affecting performance a little.
The winds have eased and have shifted round against us a little meaning we have to sail closer to the wind. At this angle our old technique of lashing the wheel and making micro occasional adjustments is no longer working so it’s either the autopilot or full hand steering. We also have a knot of counter current, also reported by the boats ahead of us. All this adds up to us averaging now about 5 knots and not quite in the right direction. Fortunately the high we were watching so closely before we left is indeed shifting off and offering us easterlies and north-easterlies as we approach New Zealand so we can make up our drift west from the rhumb line. If we continue at this pace our ETA is now Friday morning.

A couple of milestones were passed yesterday. During Helen’s shift we passed over the 180 East West meridian. No one was paying much attention to this and we only realized after the event. We also passed the half way mark. It’s nice to know we have more sea behind us than ahead.

I’ve checked the lashing again this morning and it appears sound. I put one last piece of line on using my favourite knot, the truckers hitch, to try and reduced some of the latency. I don’t think it’s made a lot of difference but it may reduce stress on the system and help it all hold together.

I continue to download wind forecasts every 6 hours (except at midnight). At 6am I am still accessing a Los Angeles station over 5,000nm away and still getting good performance. That’s kind of cool I think. I seem to have the station all to myself at that time. With the fleet all over this side of the Pacific perhaps no-one else is thinking of using it. I’m not telling as my propagation window is only about an hour and I’m not willing to share (unless you’re reading this of course).

In hindsight we timed our jury rig of the port steering system well as the weather continued to build throughout the day and into the night. 30 knots was typical with 9-12ft seas all day long. Downloading forecasts every six hours didn’t do anything bar reinforce the picture that we’d have to wait until today to see things calm down a little.

Unwilling to stress the new join by using the autopilot we continued with balancing the boat on the sails, lashing the wheel and making occasional gentle wheel adjustment when we lost our heading. It worked well.

This morning we woke to ‘calmer’ seas. The winds were down into the mid 20s and the seas down to about 6-9 feet. This was calm enough for me to open the stern locker without fear of broaching and to inspect the handiwork. Things looked as good as they could be but I lashed the assembly a third time to be extra safe. We’re currently running on auto pilot. My initial assessment was that it looked ok but we’ll need frequent inspections throughout today to be sure of this. The accompanying picture is of the lash up before the autopilot testing.

Temperatures have dropped further. The sea temp is now down to 72F with the morning air temperature beneath this. This may not sound to bad but after two years in the tropics it feels frigid.

We currently have 601nm to go to Opua. Yesterday I understated this by 9nm. With the steering issues we have we will not be pushing the boat.

Footnote. On my second inspection 1hr after engaging the autopilot the pin holding the autopilot bearing to the shaft had ground off. This is no doubt due to the lashed shaft not being perfectly vertical and the pressure from the autopilot hydraulics being applied obliquely. It’s back to manual steering for now. I have an alternate plan for lashing the assembly which may overcome this but for now we’re making good progress so I’m not sure if I will tinker any more for now.