Back All Reports
Next 
17 45.05 N 031 30.04 W
Mileage noon to noon :141 nm
Distance to go: 1717 nm
Photo: "Bob" doing an excellent job steering downwind
Did I say we were a crew of three? Well, I
forgot to count a couple of important "crew" members. At least,
we've come to think of them as members of the crew. Our Monitor wind vane,
"Bob", has been doing most of the steering on this trip, and he's been
great. There was only one occasion when Bob lost it. We were hit by
a particularly large wave that knocked Bob upside the head, his bobbing wind
vane, and popped his oar right out of the water. We could see Bob was in
trouble and immediately disconnected him from the wheel. We called up the
fifth member of the crew, our electronic Alpha autohelm, "Otto", to
steer for us while we helped Bob collect himself. When he got his oar back
in the water and his head on straight, we went right back to using him
again. After all, he does an excellent job and he uses no power.
Bob & Otto have very different personalities.
Otto is a type A with a very exacting nature. He's driven by the compass
and he steers exactly the course we set. Bob, on the other hand, is a free
spirit. He follows the wind, wherever it goes, giving us a much more comfortable
ride, especially in shifting conditions. Gotta watch him though - he'll
take off for Margaritaville in a heartbeat - just bob-bob-bobbing along.
When we're out for a day sail or a race, we love the
feel of the tiller or the wheel in our hands and the forces of the wind and
sails against it. We love that feeling of being in the groove and the
connection to the boat via the tiller. But when we're traveling hundreds
and thousands of miles, it's good to have someone else take over the
steering. It's an extra hand, freeing up the human crew to do other
necessary tasks.
We had 25 knots again all through the night and this
morning. We're heading toward a cold front that is trailing off a huge low
pressure system over the Canaries and before we get there, we expect the wind to
diminish to 15 knots. We have that as I write this. We're reaching
on white sails now to stay between 17 degrees and 18 degrees latitude to keep in
the NE trade wind groove. We may be in for some squally conditions
tomorrow night.
All's well on board-
Tom, Peg and Garry
s/v Starboard Home
