Only a few days behind schedule, we confidently left the harbor around 2pm on Wednesday 12/6 in the afternoon and headed out into the Atlantic once again. The wind was good and we made decent time down the coast. We had a good dinner on board and as the sun set, we put a couple reefs in the main and prepped ourselves for the first full night at sea.
Almost as soon as we had the reef in, the wind speed started rising out of the NW. We all got our fioul weather and safety gear on and started to set shifts for overnight sailing. Well, the wind kept coming up and we were soon in steady 20-25 knot winds. For our first night, this was the inevitable trail by fire. Everything below that could shift, did so. We had supplies all over the cabin sole. Luckily, the sky was clear so we weren’t dealing with the handful of leaks we had discovered.
The steering issue we thought we had resolved, came back to plague us again, making steering a challenge and unnerving everyone. Sam expected that he would suffer from some motion sickness and with the larger than expected seas, he did not disappoint. I joined in the chorus a couple times during the night as well.
…then the steering went out altogether. The helm was not responsive and turning the wheel had zero influence on the boat’s direction. This was pretty much my biggest moment of panic but with the sails balanced, Nefertari actually kept moving on a perfectly straight reaching course and on the few occassions when she would start to bear off, we were able to steer her back with the main sheet. A few unintentional gibes occurred but generally we were able to continue for a few hours like this while we started evaluating the problem.
Turns out there was a leak in the hydraulic system so by pumping it up with the bicycle pump, we were able to restore steering. This would only last a minute or so and so while one person worked the main sheet against gibing, a second was ready to get on the pump to give us emergency steering and bring Nefertari back on course.
We discussed various ways the system might have gotten a leak and with some soapy water, were able to narrow down the leak to the pump valve fitting. We were able to find a small diameter piece of fuel line that we clamped over the fitting and then used vice-grips over a bent portion of the tube to create a fix. It worked! But only for about 20 minutes at a time. This was an improvement and knowing that we had at the least, identified the root of the problem and come up with a fix to allow us control of the boat but the rest of the night was long and tiring and way too cold.
At one point, I think we had a bunch of dolphins swimming next to the boat but I couldn’t see anything except the chart plotter. Their presence may have been a good sign, but I think it might have had more to do with the chumming 🙂