Hand Steering
30 April 2013 | Long Island, Bahamas
Becky/78 degrees, 15 knots wind
We pulled anchor at 6 am headed for Long Island. We had 15 knots, reach sail, going 7+ knots and the hydrovane was driving. Oh, forgot to say, a few nights ago while we were doing an over night, I suggested to Denny before we left to take the rudder off the hydrovane because we had just motored all night and weren't using it. So he did, we weren't but an hour out and the autopilot started making a terrible noise. Yep you guessed it, the motor broke. Without the rudder on the hydrovane we now had to hand steer. The wind picked up, we set sail and hand stirred all night. Steve & Rena learned very quickly and did a great job. We traded off every 30 minutes. Now the hydrovane is setup and is working just fine.
We have been fishing as we sail since we left Jamaica with no luck. Finally, snap goes the line and Steve yells, "we've caught a dorado!" Denny rolls up the jib as Steve keeps the line taunt. It took a while to get the 20 lbs. dorado onto the boat. We had a delicious dinner and Rena's childhood favorite dessert, upside down pineapple cake. I see fish tacos in the future.
Life is good on Kokomo!
Becky