Day 4 - Fickle Autopilot

Big news today- we GYBED! Yes, it's exciting things like this that make the day of the passage sailor.

Petrels circling Totem

The autopilot needs to be babied. When he opened up the gear box for another lube, Jamie found brass shavings- a sign the planetary gears are wearing. At least we replaced the plastic gears back in Mexico- they would never have lasted this long! We are taking steps to lighten the load on the autopilot- hand steering more, motorsailing when it makes sense. With just two of us trading watches, hand steering all the time would be exhausting. Niall is able to help, which is huge, and we can still rely on the autopilot in some conditions. A new autopilot is now just another boat buck looming in our future.

We're making great progress. Besides near ideal conditions for Totem- 20-25 knots, right on the beam- we're riding the East Australian Current (those who know it can now quote several relevant lines from Finding Nemo...). We've gone long stretches of averaging 9-10 knots, rarely seen less than 6, and occasionally surfed over 14. Not bad!

Ocean-dwelling petrels circle Totem. These dove-gray birds spend most of their life far out at sea. It's beautiful to watch them glide over the water, perfectly anticipating the lift of the waves and and staying just inches above them. Occasionally a wing is very diliberately dipped to skim through the surface: it's magical to watch.

At 6:45pm (NSW time) this evening, Totem crossed into Australian waters. We watched and counted down the minutes until this first hurdle of arrival: it was an exciting moment! It looks like we'll arrive in plenty of time on Friday to complete clearance and avoid the nearly $300 additional in fees that come with checking in on the weekend.

Grateful

Most of the things people say they worry about when they hear about how we live... well, they generally aren't things I worry about. Pirates. Storms. "What if something happens?" type stuff. Without belittling these possibilities, the risks are sometimes more about fear of the unknown, and the known factors are all things we manage against.

But then there comes a spell where we hear bad news from the boats around us. Twice during the two-week span we spent in Vanuatu, cruising boats arrived at their destination with one less person aboard. We're reminded that safety is something we can never be cavalier about.

We arrived in Noumea this morning. Weather changes turned a two day passage into four days, but we spent most of the balance taking a break- tucked safely into a protected bay along our route. Here in Noumea, though, we found friends who had a more memorable passage- the pounding upwind pushed their rig over the limit, and they lost their mast. They're fine, and the boat is eventually going to be fine, but it's sobering.

So I'm grateful. Grateful to be safe in still water with my family. Grateful for Jamie's depth of marine experience and amazing skills on the water. Grateful for our Totem- our vessel in more ways than one. Grateful for a tap on the shoulder to remind us to be vigilant.

Radio fail

Once again, our SSB radio has failed. It's very frustrating.

The symptoms are similar to what we experienced during our Pacific crossing in April-- namely, it won't tune up. We aren't trying to transmit, because that can only damage the unit. When we crossed from Mexico to the Marquesas in April, transmitting after failing to properly tune resulted in blowing the internal power amplifiers. I sincerely hope we haven't done that again (since making the expensive repair in Papeete, we've been extremely vigilant about ensuring a proper tune before transmitting).

Our good friends Chuck & Peggy, from s/v Alert, had offered to send us a dipole antenna back when we had the original problem. Good souls from our radio clubs on Bainbridge Island and at the Seattle Yacht Club offered ideas and assistance as well- the troubleshooting ideas helped, but it was the feeling of support out there that was at least as important. We felt good about the repair in Papeete and decided to wait for the end of the season in Australia before figuring out our backup plan (dipole antenna, secondary ham radio, sat phone, or some combination of the above)... it's feeling like hubris now!

On the other hand- we know we can do this. Although being without a functioning SSB is very difficult for me, the primary communicator on Totem. The important thing is that we can recieve: so we will be able to get weather faxes and can listen into the various nets, which will help us get useful weather data during the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we have been rethinking our route to Australia- making choices to shorten the number of passage days we'll have.

We're departing today for Noumea. It's frustrating, but we'll get by, and we'll learn more about how little we really need.