Hi everyone again, after a wonderful time cruising the Windward Islands with John and Carol, our Atlantic crew, we set off on the next leg to New Zealand.
We had a wonderful start virtually over the start line first and moving along nicely. 10 minutes on and the steering went all limp! We made an emergency call on the radio to warn other yachts around us that we had no steering and we turned into wind and motored to anchor up and fix the steering.
Two and a half hours later Steve, our Pacific crew with partner Deb, had fitted a new pulley rope and it was up anchor and on our way. The rest of the fleet were out of sight and after a terrific Squall and downpour of rain the wind dropped, we were struggling to catch up with speeds of 5 knots.
The winds are dropping again today, Thursday, so we have a full main and geneker set giving us 6 knots of speed. At 1200 position roll call we are 30 miles behind the fleet.
Hope to receive as many reply e mails as we had in the Atlantic.
Bye for now.
Paul, Sally, Steve and Deb
PS Steve said Deb hasn't had a burp yet!