25 February 2020 | Scarborough Marina, Brisbane
21 February 2020 | 59 Miles To Go
20 February 2020 | 114 Miles East Of Australia
19 February 2020 | 220 Miles East Of Gold Coast Seaway
19 February 2020 | 262 Miles To Gold Coast Seaway
18 February 2020 | 304 Miles East Of Gold Coast Seaway
18 February 2020 | 328 Miles To Go
17 February 2020 | 423 Miles To Go
17 February 2020 | 423 Miles To Go
16 February 2020 | 505 Miles East Of The Gold Coast
15 February 2020 | 617 Miles To Go
14 February 2020 | 755 Miles To Go
13 February 2020 | 888 Miles To The Gold Coast
12 February 2020 | 1032 Miles To The Gold Coast
11 February 2020 | 580 Miles North Of The Waikato
11 February 2020 | 1167 Miles To Home
10 February 2020 | 1300 Miles To Home
10 February 2020 | 1309 Miles To The Gold Coast
09 February 2020 | 1460 Miles To The Gold Coast Seaway
Running Replacements
04 October 2019 | 250 Miles North East Of Santo Antao
Day 119 7pm Friday 4th October 2019 ( UTC-1 )
Last week as I approached the Antipode I temporarily tried to engage the Octopus hydraulic drive but while the electric motor ran there was no response from hydraulic ram. As the Windpilot handles upwind work better I put investigations into the problem to a later date. I read the output voltage to the solenoid which closes the circuit at two to three volts and wrongfully concluded that a fault had occurred in the Raymarine 200 computer. I checked with Charlie the Technical Officer at TMQ Brisbane who advised that the solenoid operated on 12 volts so yesterday I ran a bypass with switch and additional fuse. When turned on this momentarily operated the solenoid then blew the 15 amp fuse so I concluded the solenoid had a short and the reason for the low voltage at the control box was the high throughput current. When the solenoid was disconnected the true reading of 12v+ appeared. I then unbolted the Octopus drive and installed the Raymarine Type 1 linear drive. Quite a job in the cramped lazarette while sitting on the wriggling quadrant being turned this way and that by the Windpilot. I fired up the 200 and would you believe it immediately steadied the course and has seen us averaging close to seven knots for the last 24 hours in the difficult running conditions of wind from dead astern with one reef in the main to Starboard and the jib poled out to Port.