March 10
We discovered a crack in the stringer that supports the rudder post while working on another issue. We were having problems with the pressure water and when Lee investigated that he discovered the crack and it was flexing open by 1.5mm or so when waves hit us. We weren't taking on any water but this is a serious issue and if the rudder failed we could end up with a large hole in the bottom of the boat. We immediately put a double reef in the main, furled the genoa and put out the staysail to reduce speed and the loads on the rudder. Lee added some temporary bracing and then sanded and added a few layers of fiberglass. We watched it overnight while keeping in contact with the closest rally boats in case the fix didn't work. Today we added another few layers of fiberglass, hopefully that will allow us to make it to Tahiti where the boat will have to be pulled for repairs.
It's really lucky that we found it before a catastrophic failure. We have some pretty good wind/waves here and the rudder is loading up pretty well. Reducing sail helped so we probably won't be pushing the envelope on sail area for the rest of this leg! We had Heidi (the hydrovane) driving so we didn't realize there was a problem - we couldn't feel any vibration or anything.
Onto more happy news Sarah lost a tooth yesterday (bottom) and her other front top tooth today (last one was lost about 2 weeks ago) - she looks adorable!
So we're still sailing along, nice wind but rolly. We have 1967 miles to go.
Pauline