Day 14 - Broken Monitor Wind Steering

The autopilot steered the boat without failure and after the end of my communication session at midnight I went to the steering station to engage the Monitor, which would be more reliable through the night. Tried as I might I could not get the unit to steer. Then I began to watch its behavior closely, in particular the interaction between the airvane and the angle of the paddle in the water, and concluded that something had broken. The water paddle seems to have a life of its own, moving from the extreme of one side to the extreme of the other with no restraint When I lifted the paddle out of the water it hung almost athwartships of the boat, something that I had ever seen before. In the morning I would dig out the literature on the Monitor and make a better assessment.

Somehow the autopilot steered the boat for the rest of the night without failure. I set the timer and woke up at one hour intervals to make sure that the unit was still on "auto" and after a couple of hours of that I went back to bed with no timer to get some uninterrupted sleep. In the morning the wind was so low that we were making less than half a knot and doing a lot of wallowing in the still lumpy sea, yet the unit was still steering. During my second cup of coffee I was at the companionway on the point of putting the autopilot on "standby" when I heard the "beep beep beep ...." alarm, warning that it could not cope and was going on standby. By the time I got to the steering station the beeping had stopped and "standby" was displayed on the head. I suspect that the alarm goes off every time that the unit disengages but I am unable to hear it inside the cabin, particularly if the engine is running. Through the Seatalk network the chart plotter at the nav station monitors the status of the autopilot as well as bearing and distance to the active waypoint to which the autopilot is steering. The chart plotter can also set the state of the autopilot to "standby" or "auto". So one would think that any error and alarm would be reported through the chart plotter, but that is not the case.

It was going to be a day of minimal progress. At noon I would be within half a degree of the center of a High and useful wind was not expected in my area until midnight, building up steadily for the next 24 hours. So this would be a day of wallowing in the water with lots of heavy rolling and pitching. But the weather would be clear and sunny which would give me a chance to dry out the boat and my wet weather gear.

I started up the engine at about 8 AM in order to charge the batteries, make some progress, and dry the interior of the boat. While the autopilot steered the boat I had a close look at the Monitor and noted that two vital gears were not meshing. These gears transfer the up and down motion from the airvane to a lateral rotation of the water paddle. The upper gear ("pinion gear") was orientated up instead of down to meet the "ring gear" below. I could not figure out how this happened or the best way to correct it, so drafted a message to Scanmar which will be sent tonight. At this point the components of the monitor appear to be in good order, including the gear teeth, so there is room for optimism.

If needs be the autopilot will probably get me through to Cape Town. The Head is brand new, the flux gate compass was replaced in Mexico (and thanks to Arnold's soldering I now have a spare), and the linear drive was replaced in New Zealand in 2008. The course computer is original but is mounted in a secure location protected from shock and water and has no moving parts.

After a 2 hour engine run I spent the rest of the morning dropping and packing away the trysail, putting up the lazy jacks, tidying up the cockpit ropes, putting out gear to dry, etc.

At noon our position was 34S44, 025W29, representing a n-n distance of 64 mile to the SE (120T). We were 658 miles from TdC and drifting to the SW at 1 kt. The barometer was up 8 points to 1018 hPa. As expected it was a bright and sunny day, and warm enough for shorts and short sleeves. I was now more anxious to get further south as fast as possible in search of steadier winds.

In the afternoon I replaced the plastic tarp protecting the Zodiac. The old one began to disintegrate following many month of service since La Paz. I tied the Monitor water paddle very securely in the "up" position with ropes so that it won't bang around in the coming spell of wind. I decided to have a cockpit bath in the sun while the getting was good, and it was very pleasant and refreshing. Then I spent 30 minutes chopping the various ingredients for another pressure cooker of bean and lentil stew. That would provide another 4 main meals and one soup lunch. Finally I had a cold beer sitting in the companionway enjoying the clean body and clean clothes, the dry and tidy cabin, smelling the pressure cooker steaming away, the good weather, and watching the wind numbers slowly creeping up on the Raymarine wind display because while I was bathing the anemometer at the top of the mast started sending data again. I felt contented, while waiting for the wind.

After dinner there were several false starts with the wind which I ignored, but at 10 PM it held steady and I heard the hum of the wind charger, which indicates an adequate wind. I interrupted the movie ("The Departed") and went on deck with my head torch on. I needed to turn the boat around so I let out enough headsail to make way but no so much as to allow the cutter stay to interfere with the sail crossing over during the gybe. Slowly the boat turned to port, crossed the wind, and took the sail to the starboard side. Then it was a matter of rolling out more sail and setting the course. Soon we were making 3.5 kts to the SE, with the wind just forward of the beam. 3.5 knots after a day of being becalmed was like a gift from the gods. Sailing is always good with a fresh breeze over a calm sea. The wind was predicted to increase over a 2 day period to reach 25 knots, and I was looking forward to making more progress to the south. In the morning I would raise the mainsail to take full advantage of the wind.

I now watch all movies on the navigation computer so I resumed the movie, occasionally glancing up at the chart plotter to monitor the status of the autopilot.

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