First and foremost everything is fine on board, we are continuing on toward Fiji as planned still with a stop in Tuvalu.
We left Majuro bound for Fiji with 2 stops along the way, Kiribati and Tuvalu. Its the end of cyclone season, Yippie, except for the one that just popped up between Vanuatu and is heading toward New Zealand. We are heading to “Bula” country, home of friendly people and kava ceremonies.
When we left the Marshall Islands we had 2 steering helms, 2 rudders, 1 auto pilot and 2 souls capable of steering the boat with any of those. And we have an emergency tiller too, in case everything goes pear shaped. Let me say, we have had some “challenges” on this passage south.
First arriving Kiribati, one of the steering boxes on the starboard side decided 24 years was enough, and demanded attention. One its bearings on the inside the steering gears rusted through and burst into pieces. One steering station down. Now we can no longer steer the boat from the starboard helm, and that is also where the gas pedal is. So picture a clown car with the clowns carrying around the steering wheel, yet the car won’t turn. Turn as you might the steering wheel, helm, just spins indefinitely. To actually turn, you have to run to the other side of the drivers end clown car to steer and run back to give it gas or slow down. What can go wrong? 🙂 The clowns always make it work, right? I actually removed the steering gear (red below) where the bearings disintegrated, so that the pieces and wobbly gear wouldn’t lock up the steering completely. So whew, order bearings to repair and head off to Tuvalu. Not ideal but we have 2 of everything, part of being a catamaran.
Left Kiribati bound for Tuvalu.
The sail started out as champagne sailing doing great speeds and making short work of 700 miles we were making toward Tuvalu. It devolved a bit into prosecco sailing when the speeds dropped a bit, but still great fun. Day 3 the squalls of the ITCZ (convergence zone between north and south hemispheres), quick wind shifts and gusts made for some exciting times. Nothing out of the normal for this part of the pacific crossing the equator and the convergence zones. When the wind went too light and on the nose, it was time to check the engine fluids before starting and to spot any potential issues. I found the port rudder “control arm” broke at some point, probably during one of those pesky 30kt squalls. The ones that steel your perfect wind and force you off course. Thinking back, the broken bit might explain why it took longer than normal to turn downwind to run in the storm. So the port rudder is down till we find a stainless welder. Its lashed to the central position now, its just not wobbling too and fro willy nilly, and getting a free ride.
So for those keeping count, we have 1 working steering helm station (port), 1 working rudder (starboard), 1 auto pilot(starboard), and 2 less than pleased souls on board. And of course the emergency tiller when all else fails. So now we still use the gas pedal on the starboard side, run to port side to steer, the steering rudder is actually on the starboard side. Got it? A bit complicated but we are still trucking along, albeit a bit more conservatively till we arrive Fiji and work on getting cold beer to tackle fixing the steering project.
Is it Fiji that doesn’t like our steering? 2 years ago, one of our rudders vanished on the way to Fiji. This year, other steering components are making their voices heard.
275nm to Tuvalu, then another 500ish to Fiji.. we will get there!
