Fourteenth  day out -Things aren’t getting any better

After our first night of had steering, which went real well, we awoke to lighter winds in the 12-13 it range and I decided to hoist the spinnaker. We were sailing along for about two hours on the kite at 130 degrees apparent wind when all of a sudden the boat rounded up and there was a subtle pop and the boat flattened out.

Unfortunately this flattening out was not a good thing because the head of the sail had ripped out and the sail was flying by the amsteel sewn into the luff of the sail. We rushed to get the sail down but but the time we got it back on board the amsteel had ripped out of the sail almost to the tack.

We went back to our furling headsail and it looks like that is what we will be on for the rest of the trip.

On a side note, I did attempt to repair the autopilot. George and I had to replace all the ball bearings that flew out when I took the ram apart which took most of our time. We then tried to epoxy putty some of the gears that were stripped (on the electro magnetic clutch) and I fought my way back I into he transom to reinstall the ram and test the repair.

**** funny story**** a 6’6″ man weighing 240 pounds does not fit very well into a space 18″ high x 24″ wide at the very back of the boat behind the generator, scuba compressor, water maker and steering gear, and I have the welts and scratches to prove it.

Once we had the ram reinstalled we tried it but the fix did not hold. The ram went in and out but could not hold the pressure of the rudder when the ram was not working in or out.

Kristine is going to look at getting it overhauled in Hawaii or possibly getting a new one and getting this unit overhauled in future.

Position update at 1200 local time April 6, 2016:
19 01.110 N
139 33.609 W
158 nautical mile noon to noon run
1011 nautical miles to destination
6.5 Kt. SOG
285 COG