Day 13, March 19 - Monitor Glitch and Cruise Statistics

It was an unusual night of sailing for me. The wind held up amazingly well until 8 PM or so, when it started to moderate. On winds of only 11 and 12 kts we were making close to 6 kts on a beam reach. Small gusts took us to 7 kts. Shortly after 8 PM the boat headed into the wind which indicated that the Monitor had lost steering control. I didn't think much about it and simply swapped over to the autopilot. An hour later I went to the steering station to re engage the Monitor and I noticed that the water paddle was trailing the boat in a folded up floating position. Somehow the paddle trip mechanism had gone off. I used the boat hook to slam the paddle into a vertical position in the water but it would not lock into place. This troubled me for the rest of the night because without the paddle down and locked the Monitor was useless. But I've learned not to panic with these technical problems and I would deal with it in the morning. The autopilot would have to steer us until morning.

Of course then the autopilot decided to start throwing itself on standby every 30 minutes, which prevented any sleep. Fortunately all that would happen was that the boat would round up into the wind, the headsails would begin to luff, and I would be alerted. Toward midnight the wind died down to less than 10 kts and the boom would go through bouts of slamming. But the slamming wasn't violent enough to cause any damage so I kept the boat moving slowly all night against a very weak wind. Normally I would not do this but I was determined to make at least 100 miles per day and did not want to lay ahull for 5 or 6 hours. For some reason the autopilot will steer the boat without the disengagement problem when it is creeping through the water at 2 and 3 kts, even though response to the rudder is very sluggish, So I got a few hours of good uninterrupted sleep until daylight at 4 AM. By then the wind had picked up to perhaps 12 kts, I put the boat as hard into the wind as I could, and off we were doing over 5 kts to the NE. I would have to deal with the Monitor later in the morning, before the wind began to pick up again for its nest round of 25 kt winds.

It was very cold in the cabin at 11C so I dug out the Icebreaker wool skin tight top and pants and a pair of Alpine socks. I had a minimal sponge wash bath, changed underclothes, then decided to put on the Icebreaker after the Monitor work because there would be a high risk of getting one of my legs in the water.

I decided to go in heavy with the Monitor investigation because I didn't want to be trammeled by worries of safety or exposure. I put on the wet weather pants over bear legs then strapped the sea boots tightly around the legs because I remembered that when working on the Monitor on the way to the Horn one leg had slipped and plunged into the water almost to the knee but no water had made its way into the boot. I gathered a hammer and two type of pliers and went to the cockpit where I clipped the tether to the backstay so that I would be able to climb out onto the frame. I released the paddle and let it trail in the water then hove to in the classical style with both sails backwinded. This technique works fine in moderate winds and the boat lay comfortably making little way. Then I turned my attention to the water paddle and it was down and locked. The absence of a strong slip stream had allowed the natural hobby horsing of the boat to force the paddle into the locked position. What a relief! I said a little prayer of thanks. (Most of us pray. What differentiates us is who or what we pray to.) Something must have tripped the locking mechanism loose and in the night and with the boat moving at over 5 kts I must not have been able to push the paddle down far enough down with the boat hook.

It is easy do look back and dismiss this as a trivial incident but I have learned that even the most minor glitch can be the harbinger of a crisis. A similar thing happened on the way to the Horn and I managed to lock the paddle down again with the boat hook and kept it down all of the way to Argentina because I was afraid that if I lifted the paddle out of the water I would not be able to lock it down again. In Argentina one of the nearby sailors inspected the Monitor from his inflatable dinghy and found that a small bolt had sheared off. Fortunately I had a replacement in my Monitor spares kit and he was able to replace the bolt.

Back in the cabin I removed the wet weather gear and donned my Southern Ocean outfit for the first time since the Horn. Below the waist I had underpants then Icebreaker pants and cotton track suit pants over that. On my feet I had alpine socks and bedroom slippers so that my feet could tell my head that I was in the comfort zone. On my chest I had a cotton T-shirt, Icebreaker top, sleeveless wool sweater, another wool sweater, and a cotton pullover on top. I would wear the skin tight fine Merino wool Icebreakers probably until I began my swing north to Fremantle.

At the early SAMMNet session Graham predicted sustained 30 kt winds for the coming day (Wed 19th). Early tomorrow morning I would drop the mainsail down to the new 3rd reef in anticipation of the blow and I was looking forward to see how that would work. We would be running downwind and the Monitor should have an easier time of steering with the reduced sail area aft of the mast.

Contrary to the forecast, at 7 AM I was confronted with a 10 kt easterly wind. I had a choice of heading almost north or almost south. I chose north toward the 43S line. At 8 AM the wind was becoming untenable and I got the bright idea of doing an engine run to top up the batteries. They were down to 12.5V and I wanted to face the coming blow without having to worry about the voltage level of the house bank. Before I started the engine I checked the oil and coolant levels and found them to be spot on, with the engine oil looking remarkably clean. A few days earlier I had checked the fuel vacuum gauge at 1500 rpm and the needle was still on the peg. We motored E with sails up and luffing gently and the Monitor water paddle down. I turned on the heater to warm up the cabin.

I took the opportunity to wash two sets of underclothes in the sink in fresh water warmed up from the hot kettle. I draped the underpants in front of the heater, and they would be dry by the end of the engine run. The boarding ladder, which is inverted and lashed to the front of the binnacle, has proven to be more than a just convenient hand hold in rough weather. I draped the T-shirt over the top of the ladder and the 2 pairs of socks on one of the rungs, all held down by clothes pegs. I hung the sailing jacket spread eagle between the lee cloth cords on each side of the cabin to dry in the generous amounts of warm air coming out of the Red Dot heater.

At noon our position was 43S00, 34E54, giving a n-n distance of 114 miles to the ESE.

In the early afternoon I took advantage of the calm sea and light wind to tighten the intermediate shrouds while under way. I gave each turnbuckle one half turn and will check them they are under load. I did it just in time because 20 minutes later the wind veered and strengthened and we were making a satisfactory 5 kts to the ESE.

I updated the cruising log spreadsheet up to our departure date from Cape Town and the results are:

Total Miles Sailed: 30,000 (29958 according to the spreadsheet)
Total Days Under Sail: 326
Total Days in Port: 1437
Total Days Away: 1763

So 82% of time in this circumnavigation has been spent "on land" be it a marina, on anchor, or doing local cruising.

At sunset we were ambling along at 4 knots against a light wind that was expected to remain so until dawn. The sea was calm and the air was cold. I was enjoying the relaxation before the next bout of strong winds.

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