Just when we were feeling assured of a trouble free voyage, disaster struck around 2.30am when Sam and Lucci were on watch and the Autopilot failed.
We have all grown to rely on this device; you set your heading and the electro-hydraulics do the rest. Their watch diligence and awareness of a 'change in wind and conditions' saved the situation and avoided a damaging gybe. They woke me immediately as the heading changed without proper control and my first instinct was to start engines and take the autopilot from 'wind vane mode' to 'auto'. Having regained the proper course I was alarmed that we continued to yaw and then realized that we had an autopilot issue. Go to 'Standby' !
The weather at the time was kind to us. It could have been a lot worse with a Force 7 running behind us and the type of waves we have seen over the last week. We have continued steering by the wheel since and it is actually a pleasurable challenge (hasn't been my turn again yet though...) We set about diagnosing the problem by eliminating electronics, electrics, fluid leaks, actuator problems and our present prognosis is a failure of the hydraulic pump. I have been onto Ancasta this morning and Lagoon don't have a spare in stock. They will try to get one out to Martinique for us by 10th December from the supplier so that looks like our next island stop after St Lucia.
Riorden pestered me until I gave in and let him dismantle the hydraulic pump to see inside. He climbed up into the roof cavity to do this. It's an intricate bit of engineering and at this time we have only peeked into the first pump cavity, but there are no broken pieces or debris so far. It would be good to get a drawing of it to understand what we are looking for but no doubt will figure it out in the end.
Riorden pump