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Charm - To South Africa 3



This morning, when I got up and noticed Carl hand steering, I asked how Jeff (our auto-pilot) was doing and Carl said Jeff was “listless.” His health went downhill quickly and later that morning, Joe told me Jeff had seized up altogether. While Carl continued steering, Joe found our old auto-pilot motor and we began Operation Revive Jeff.

Joe cracked open the steering unit and it was immediately obvious to all of us that there was an issue. One of the springs had broken but otherwise, it looked to be in fairly good condition. We thought maybe we could take the current Jeff, who was only a few months old, and, between the two, create a new, working auto-pilot.

Joe and Cobin dove into the port engine compartment while Carl maintained a steady course. It quickly became obvious that Carl, whose steering shift had ended half an hour prior, would end up steering through his entire break if he continued so I took over for him and he went to take a much-deserved nap.

Joe and Cobin brought Jeff up and cracked him open and it was a mess. Ball bearings rolling all over, bits of spring and other parts twisted and mangled and flopping around. He had died a horrible death of dismemberment from the inside. In comparison, the old Jeff looked quite healthy. I was steering at that point so didn’t get to see the rebuild but Joe told me he added a bit of spring to the broken section and decided that it was worth a try. If it didn’t work, we would be hand steering but since we were doing that anyway, it seemed worthwhile to try to get some autopilot capability, however long it lasted.

Cobin and Joe hooked up all the lines, poured the hydraulic fluid into the reservoir (an awful job involving a shot glass, a tiny inaccessible receptacle located in the back recesses of a cabinet, lots of wires, and wave action), and asked me to try it. No luck. We tried again but it wanted to recalibrate so we called it a day. The winds were increasing and we had been going off course for the past hour, trying to keep the boat steady so Joe and Cobin could operate on Jeff but we needed to turn left or we would hit Madagascar.

The overall guidance for the trip thus far was to stay north of the 26th latitude line until we got about 400 miles from Richards Bay when we could turn southwest. This would keep us out of various currents to the south of Madagascar and set us up to reach Richards Bay instead of getting swept past it by the strong current coming down between Madagascar and the mainland. The wind last night was not in our favor and we had dipped south of 26 degrees. This morning, we encountered a fierce current pushing us the wrong direction. Lunatix, about 14 miles north of us, reported that they only had 1 knot of current while we had 4 – 5 knots. During Operation Revive Jeff, we had turned due north to try to escape the current and keep the boat steady. It worked! As we made a left turn, we had the current with us and moved forward at a healthy 12 knots.

Although our heading was straight for Madagascar, the boat was actually moving exactly the way we wanted to go. It’s very odd to look at the chart plotter and see the boat moving sideways but at least we’re moving sideways quickly!

So we’re still hand steering but the conditions are much better than last night and Charm actually steers herself to some degree so it’s possible to leave her for a minute or two if necessary. I have yet to do my watch so cannot report on the star/cloud situation but I’m sure it will be similar to last night.

In other news, we sighted America this afternoon! Not only did we sight her, we spoke to her on the radio. A giant container ship named America was headed right for us on Joe’s watch. He asked me to call her because every time he changed course to avoid her, she changed course to come straight at us. On the radio, I suggested that we pass port to port and she modified her course to do so. So, we passed very close by America on our way to Africa!

Whenever we have a slightly elevated sea state or are going upwind (as we are now doing), we notice the few chinks in Charm’s waterproof skin. Most of this is just inconvenient, like the sea water that comes up through the drain pipes in the sink (always a bit surprising to get a blast in the face when you are washing your hands) or the bilges on the port side that take on water from the shower drain. On the crossing to Mauritius, Carl called my attention to a new feature that he did not enjoy.

In the head on each side, Charm has an escape hatch located at knee level. While it offers a unique view of the sea and is a great place to watch fish in an anchorage, its true purpose is to allow us to get out if the boat flips over. The one on the starboard side doesn’t close as well as it should, as Carl pointed out. This means that when waves of a certain strength and angle strike the window, the water blasts through the window seal and showers whomever happens to be in the bathroom at that time. Carl pointed out that this was particularly uncomfortable when a person was seated on the toilet. I was a bit disappointed in Carl when he told me this. Although Carl lives in Europe and has an appreciation for the finer things in life, he apparently did not appreciate the sea water bidet we had installed for him. Granted, it needed some fine tuning as it operated more as a fire hose than a directed water stream but we probably could have adjusted it eventually. Joe added some washers and it is much improved but still creates puddles of salt water on the floor in the right conditions.

All things considered, Charm, at 17 years, is holding up quite well. Joe is constantly doing maintenance and upgrades and whoever buys her from us when we finish the world tour will get a great boat.

I’m off to get ready for my watch. It’s getting chilly out at night and our laundry (that we sent off in Indonesia) got misplaced after our volcano hike in Lombok so we are sharing a coat between Joe, Cobin and me. Neither of the girls has a coat any more (they were in the laundry too) but they are plenty warm inside at night. They did finally locate our laundry and are mailing it to Cape Town so we’ll get our jackets back just in time for Christmas in South Africa, smack dab in the middle of their summer!

Photos are Joe and Tully driving, the sighting of America, and the view of the water through the escape hatch in the head.



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