We are reaching what feels like the home stretch, only 900 nm to go! We estimate we’ll be in around Tuesday. Winds from here forward seem consistent 15-20 kts from behind us, periodic squalls.
Losing the autopilot was like losing a key crew member. Hand steering all day and all night on 2 hr shifts between the 4 adults wears you down. The kids have also been a big help as watch-partners. With the support of X-Yachts they are already looking at sending us a new autopilot drive motor.
We’ve had some other setbacks. The water maker developed what I’m being told by Spectra (the manufacture) is ‘sticky pistons’. Seems easily fixable but a project. We have enough water so I’m not going to attempt a fix at sea, but we are now conserving… ie no showers; funky. The generator shut down, but I was able to fix this. It was a simple broken water impeller.
Spirits remain high and there are lots of laughs aboard; yet all are ready to be in port.
On the plus side, the Watt & Sea and our satellite communications (Thales Iridium C + Mailasail router and compression) has worked perfectly.
Our sail plan of 2 asymmetric spinnakers (gennaker and a A3 for reaching), a symmetric spinnaker and a 108% jib (poled out downwind) have worked well in light and heavy winds.
Squalls have also caused some mayhem. Yesterday at dawn we broke the spinnaker pole inboard end off the mast mount as we were rolling the poled-out jib up as heavy winds. But, we managed to make a fix that I think is stronger than the original and we were back up and running in a few hrs. Lesson for us here is to jibe the poled out jib back to the leeward side before rolling it up. The high clue angle of the poled out jib makes it difficult to get a proper fuller roll, especially in high winds.
We are making quick progress with 200+ mile days since we started heading west. Just wish we still had our dear friend Auto with us.
— Bill