Yesterday afternoon our hydraulic autopilot broke leaving Janet and John having to manually steer Tango in the very heavy weather seas. We continued on our trek to Tonga. Today the 30+ kt winds and 12ft seas drove us well North of our planned track so it became practical to divert from Tonga to American Samoa (Pago Pago) for repairs. The failure is the special shouldered bolt that connects the autopilot hydraulic tiller arm to the rudder. The bolt sheared and we lost the physical connection between the hydraulic ram and the rudder. With the giant seas and storm winds coming from behind us our wind driven autopilot couldn't keep up with the rudder changes needed to keep Tango under control, so Janet and John started manually steering. This is HARD and one and only do it for a maximum of 2 hours before the concentration is shot. The seas are big enough that occasionally a wave rolls over the stern and fills up the cockpit with several inches of water.

So, when the winds drove us North it became practical to divert to Pago Pago which is straight downwind (we have had 40 kt gusts and constant 30 kt winds all day). Seas are 12ft with a very short period. The run to Pago Pago is about 170NM and we expect to pull in there Saturday night or Sunday AM. Hoping to find hardware to make a temporary repair or find a machine shop that can make replacement bolts for us. If I was in my Mississippi shop I'd have this job DONE in about an hour... oh well... life on a boat.

We hope to be back on our way to Tonga on Wed 31 July or so. This give the cruddy weather a chance to go away so we can enjoy being in the ocean. Last couple of days... not so hot.

J&J