Tuesday, August 04, 2009

After a night when neither Bill nor I slept well because of the rolling of the boat and the squeaking of the fenders caused by the river current which hit us on the beam, we got up and passed under the Port Stanley bridge at 0800. The winds were from the WSW blowing 20-25 knots for the better part of the day. We were on beam reach which meant more rolling as the 4-6 foot seas hit us broadside. We decided to work on our stamina and didn't use the autosteering. That meant had steering all day. Bill and I did most of it but Seth did take a stint toward the end after his insides settled down. Some Dramamine and some sleep made him good to go after a little rocky start to the day.

Another reason we gave the autosteering a rest is that it is working fine but making some strange noises. Bill talked to the manufacturer as we sailed along and we will need to send it in to them. So tomorrow we will go on to Port Colborne, Ontario as planned but we will have some lay over there. It could be as much as a week by the time we remove it, ship it to Washington state, they fix it, send it back and we reinstall it. We have a place at Marlon Marina in Port Colborne and they are a full service marina so will probably have them help with the removal, shipment, and reinstallation.

That will certainly hurt our time table but the autosteering is much too important an item. It is best that we take care of it now. We will just have to see how long it all takes and go from there.