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Transpac Report Shorty Style Aloha from electronic hell
The sailing is improved a lot. We have a full main and the code O up doing 8.9 knots with about 14 kts of wind. Our top speed today was 10.3 kts. We are pointing directly at Diamond Head Buoy. We had 20 minutes of sun today and a lot of squalls. See you all in a few days... get the mai tai's ready. Dan Doyle 7/19/05
"I Was Tired of Using the Wheel"
Aloha All: Things you don't want to see when you are crawling around in the bilge at 1:00 AM…. As I got off watch last night our steering problems of 3days ago resurfaced with a vengeance. I heard an unfamiliar noise as I was attempting to doze off last night and armed with my flashlight began crawling around trying to find the source of the noise. It seems our steering cables had chafed thru down to the last 2 strands…. add this to the fact that it was very dark, quite lumpy and 20-25 knots of pressure and we surfing and using the rudder aggressively… not a pretty picture. After some discussion we decided to see if we could make it until first light to effect repairs, however we needed some contingency planning in the event of a failure during the night. We decided to quit gybing for the balance of the night to reduce the chances of failure, we also decided to pull back on our steering to lighten the loads a little, this of course meant a costly reduction in surfing. We shipped the emergency tiller to use in the event of total failure and resumed sailing. We decided in the AM that if we could repair it with out reducing sail, keeping the spinnaker during the repair, then we would repair it, other wise we would finish with the emergency system. More to follow…. Dan 7/27/05 |
One
of the requirements of Transpac is to check in via Single Side Band radio
or VHF at a precise time twice a day. This morning after our check in
our brand new Single Side Band radio quite working. First a four prong
plug failed and refused to stay in. Imagine taking apart an electronic
box on a moving boat. We hard wired the plug in then found the mic and
speaker wires pinched and not making a connection. We did get it operational
enough to get checked in this evening 1700 California time. We need this
box to work another seven days. Each days missed check in is a 1/2 hour
penalty added to your finish time. 