L'Eau Commotion Westabout

Day 123 6pm Tuesday 8th October 2019 ( UTC-2 )
Checking the voltages as dusk approached I noticed it was down to 12.5 and worst of all the Watt & Sea controller was showing pure green. A quick inspection showed the cause - the prop had fallen off. My last one. I really don't know if I should have done things differently as the plastic taper fits onto a stainless taper and you can only tighten the set screw so much before the front face of the prop comes up against the back face of the alternator housing. The instructions say tighten till the prop starts to turn which is a very light finger and thumb on the shaft of the set screw and as the rotation of the prop in normal operation is such that it rotates the set screw in undoing direction I am sure this would be insufficient. Anyhow that's spilt milk. I am fortunate to be reading A World Of My Own, Robin Knox-Johnston's account of the very first non stop circumnavigation of the world and there is no comparison between my luxurious state and the trials Robin was going through long before he reached the halfway mark. Too many to list but here's a few. Windpilot vs nothing, motor easy to start with good generator to top up the three good batteries. Two solar panels should be sufficient to run VHF, AIS, GPS Chartplotter, Iridium Go satellite transceiver and Echomax Radar Enhancer 24/7, none of which Robin had but are nowadays considered essential safety equipment. Drinking water, leaks, sails, winches - read his book and you'll see what I mean. I had the Autopilot going but really on this broad reach with full main the Windpilot is doing just as good a job and now I know I won't wear it out and it will be available for those tricky times when you have your hands full. All this and I've been promised two more days of favourable winds.