stief
Super Anarchist
Sam, too had troubles: fatigue, autopilot, and keel. Safari trans from V&V Modifié le 09/01/2021 à 13h41
Hello to all V & V readers,
I have gone through a slightly more delicate period as you can read below, but my concerns have now been resolved, it is important to me to give my news to all those who follow me and show me support that gives me strength. Here is my logbook for the past week:
I'm not a runner but I know that in a marathon, we talk about the 30th kilometer wall. Over the past two days, I think I've been in the Vendée Globe version of this famous wall.
It started with a loss of wind info that my autopilot was using, obviously while I was sleeping. It was very dark and it was blowing at 30 knots! The repair was done not without difficulty and required a lot of work to get the boat back on track, but fortunately it was done without damage. I also managed to find the defect and correct it in my electronics so everything is finally fine from this point of view!
The next adventure was to discover that my keel actuator had slipped... and that the area around it was flooded... so I had to turn the boat out of the water, pump it and close the keel cylinder.
A little grinding, gluing and laminating later, the cylinder was secured
While I was doing my routine checks, I discovered that the head of the cylinder (the part attached to the keel) was unscrewing... At sea, it is impossible to screw it back on, so the solution was to create a system to block it and prevent it from unscrewing further. A little grinding, gluing and laminating later, the cylinder was secured. By a happy coincidence, I happened to be in an area with very little wind.
The cylinder now has more play than usual which makes my keel a little "noisy". It was a little worrying, so I carried out many checks to make sure that the noise came only from the keel and was not a sign of another problem but everything is fine.
In writing this, it seems rather simple to repair these small damages, but here, alone, with the fatigue and stress accumulated while sailing to the other side of the world (and having already damaged my keel once!), this episode totally exhausted me. I felt that every time I had solved one problem, another appeared. Those I described to you were also accompanied by a whole bunch of small problems, such as a cut I made to myself in the middle of a repair (only a minor cut!).
I'm on my way home now more than ever
Thank God, I am not alone and I have the incredible support and encouragement of my shore team who worked day and night to find solutions to Heart Initiatives problems and help me remotely solve everything as best I can here.
Now that everything is safe, I am confident in the ability of my cylinder to hold until arrival, and I can rest a little to recover. Fortunately, the weather is mild with me and the conditions are good. I have a few days of respite before the next depression!
Oh - and the good news is that I was so busy that I passed one of my " milestones" without realizing it. Here I am in the West longitudes because I passed the Antimeridian or "date change line" and so I won one day!! Or I lost one... depending on how we look at it!
I am more than ever on my way home now.
Sam
Hello to all V & V readers,
I have gone through a slightly more delicate period as you can read below, but my concerns have now been resolved, it is important to me to give my news to all those who follow me and show me support that gives me strength. Here is my logbook for the past week:
I'm not a runner but I know that in a marathon, we talk about the 30th kilometer wall. Over the past two days, I think I've been in the Vendée Globe version of this famous wall.
It started with a loss of wind info that my autopilot was using, obviously while I was sleeping. It was very dark and it was blowing at 30 knots! The repair was done not without difficulty and required a lot of work to get the boat back on track, but fortunately it was done without damage. I also managed to find the defect and correct it in my electronics so everything is finally fine from this point of view!
The next adventure was to discover that my keel actuator had slipped... and that the area around it was flooded... so I had to turn the boat out of the water, pump it and close the keel cylinder.
A little grinding, gluing and laminating later, the cylinder was secured
While I was doing my routine checks, I discovered that the head of the cylinder (the part attached to the keel) was unscrewing... At sea, it is impossible to screw it back on, so the solution was to create a system to block it and prevent it from unscrewing further. A little grinding, gluing and laminating later, the cylinder was secured. By a happy coincidence, I happened to be in an area with very little wind.
The cylinder now has more play than usual which makes my keel a little "noisy". It was a little worrying, so I carried out many checks to make sure that the noise came only from the keel and was not a sign of another problem but everything is fine.
In writing this, it seems rather simple to repair these small damages, but here, alone, with the fatigue and stress accumulated while sailing to the other side of the world (and having already damaged my keel once!), this episode totally exhausted me. I felt that every time I had solved one problem, another appeared. Those I described to you were also accompanied by a whole bunch of small problems, such as a cut I made to myself in the middle of a repair (only a minor cut!).
I'm on my way home now more than ever
Thank God, I am not alone and I have the incredible support and encouragement of my shore team who worked day and night to find solutions to Heart Initiatives problems and help me remotely solve everything as best I can here.
Now that everything is safe, I am confident in the ability of my cylinder to hold until arrival, and I can rest a little to recover. Fortunately, the weather is mild with me and the conditions are good. I have a few days of respite before the next depression!
Oh - and the good news is that I was so busy that I passed one of my " milestones" without realizing it. Here I am in the West longitudes because I passed the Antimeridian or "date change line" and so I won one day!! Or I lost one... depending on how we look at it!
I am more than ever on my way home now.
Sam
