Day 1 to Lord Howe
The day started peacefully as we sailed out of Broken Bay on a course South of Lord Howe Island. There are strong currents and eddies off the East Australian Coast and these can significantly affect relatively slow moving yachts. We figured out that looping South would ease the worst of the current on our trip. Such was the case, but only for the first 9hrs as we experienced light Westerly winds. The weather Bureau had issued a Strong Wind Warning for the whole NSW Coast that morning (about the time we arose from our beds). They had issued the same thing the day before and noting had happened. We decided to head off anyway and get as far as we could before the Southerly Front hit and then ride with it for the expected 24hr duration.
Well, the front did arrive and was quite strong with 35kt winds. The seas got up quickly and the swell had also built, signifying strong winds some distance away.
We had experienced a very pleasant day, reading books and eating a hot dinner, courtesy of Cook Penny. The whole crew was working well together and Paul, our newcomer, had fitted in particularly well. Of course, we knew this was likely with his agreeable nature, but he showed excellent aptitude with the wind steering and other esoteric items.
So, it was a little unfortunate that some significant problems happened on Paul's watch- none to do with him- though he thought it was him at the time! Firstly, a "Padeye Bolt" on the wind steering sheered off so that the wind steering ("Flinders") stopped steering. Once we determined the problem, we engaged the electronic autopilot. This went fine for about an hour, then again Paul reported that we were no longer on course. Indeed, we were veering all over the ocean! Upon entering the cockpit, I found that the wheel was spinning aimlessly and no longer connected to the rudder! This is pretty serious and meant four of the five different ways we have of steering the boat were now out of action. Not a situation we've been in before. It was very rough with several metre seas running on a confused swell of several metres. It was dark, wet and very rocky. Penny succumbed to seasickness and Will was somewhat affected. We put option five for steering into action. The emergency tiller was mounted and we connected it to spare winches as the force required to use it in big seas is very large. Will is experienced sailing tiller-steered boats and Dave used to do so. Despite this, we found the mental and physical effort was enormous and gave it away after an hour. Dave knew that climbing into confined spaces to investigate the other problems in these circumstances would probably knock him out of action as well.
So, the decision was made to take down all sails and drift (called "lying ahull") with the wind and the current. This was safe but very uncomfortable. We had lots of empty ocean to float in and kept our usual active watch for ships. So ended day 1 and we started Day 2 in somewhat of a pickle.
Regards Dave, Penny, Paul & Will
