[Greyhawkupdates] Losing Ground

[Tim Allen GREYHAWK]

Last night I went to a double reefed main and the heavy staysail. At one point I saw 28 knots of wind. Later on it was just weird, with the winds ranging from 10 to 20 over very short distances/times. I have been doing a lot of manual steering because my autopilot just doesnt' seem up to some of the challenges, and I can't get the boat to steer itself on the points of sail I need to go in. If I had something else I needed to do, like record in the log, the best I could do was to tie off the tiller and let the boat luff up. I contemplated heaving to for a while to try to get some sleep, but I was fore-reaching away from Bermuda on both tacks, so I gave that up, and instead worked on developing the ability to sleep while helming -- I'll let you know when I have perfected the ability, but it involves training your muscles and your senses to steer to boat by instinct independent of your brain, so you can sleep while still helming,,,,

Out of sheer exhaustion, I made another attempt with the autopilot, and right now it is working OK, but it still has a tendency to get jammed when it drives the push rod out to the extreme, causing the boat to round down (or up) into an auto gybe (or auto tack), whcih is a royal pain. Or sometimes we just get the dreaded "MOT STALL" error.

I have decided that the best solution to fixing a problematic self-steering mechanism is to have someone else aboard who can steer for you while your fixing the thing (or doing whatever else it is that needs doing). Unfortunately there is no one else aboard right now.

So I've got the genny rolled out, the staysail tied down on the foredeck, the reefs shaken out of the main, radio chat hour with the fleet is over, and I'm filing my reports.  We're cruising along on a beam reach in 12 to 15 knots of breeze with lumpy 4 foot seas and some larger swells rolling through, pointed straight at Bermuda some 400 miles ahead. If I've positioned my self well (and can stay on it) hopefully I'll get a little push from a little dip in the gulf stream as I  pass through.

Tim Allen
GREYHAWK


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