Saturday May 25
We made it through the ugly trough with squalls and 40+winds, the chilly cold front with winds 20-25 knts. out of the north, and threats from the low in Chesapeake of gale force winds above us. The convergence of all three made us question sitting out here. Most of the Salty Dawgs chose to sit it out in Bermuda sipping dark and stormy rum drinks.
For three days we have zigged and zagged in the safe latitudes, and hove to for about 3 hours before Dave started zig zagging again. Hooray! The worse is over. No damage, no problems. Currently we are traveling west and all is good.
After clearing the messy weather this morning the steering wheel threw its nut overboard and fell off. Auto pilot does not require a steering wheel, thank goodness. The wheel is now back on--held fast by wire twisted around the exposed threads.
Our gear arm is also broken, and a pair of vice grips allow us to shift. A few days ago our out-haul blew apart on the boom and strong line is still holding it in place. The pictures of all these at sea repairs will make a great article.
Now as we wait for the beer to chill and the nacho to bubble,we are experiencing burst of wind that take us screaming at 7knts. and then suddenly die off and leave us making 2 knts. on our western heading towards the Gulf Stream and the states.
Earlier we tried motoring north a we were maing 1.7 knts and using up valuable fuel. Hard to say how many days it will take us to make the last 400 miles of this 1,600+ mile trip--an extra 200 due to zig zagging. We will be motoring for some of it, and sailing as well. So, I guess we will see you when we see you. Don't bother to set up a betting pool for our arrive day (forget hour of arrival)it is so unpredictable. The good news is we bought BoatUS towing insurance the day we started and paid for the Deluxe plan--the one where they will come out 150 miles and deliver fuel...Hopefully we won't need to make that call.
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