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Latest news from SailOceans

    Broken steering!  Emergency stop in Cherbourg in France
    Latest news from SailOceans

    Broken steering! Emergency stop in Cherbourg in France

    written by Bartek

    Broken steering! Yep. One of my worst nightmares on a boat with one rudder. There was a good reason why we invested into the completely newly designed and built rudder and all the associated mechanism including totally oversized hydraulics to drive it 6 years ago. And truly for 6 years and 50 thousand miles it has performed flawlessly. As usual I have a lot of luck in a potentially very dangerous situation. It all happened 20 miles south of the English shores at the mouth of the English Channel with fair weather, wind pushing us in the desired direction even while adrift, and forecast indicating more favorable conditions. We were also 10 miles away from the nearest shipping lanes, which are by the way one of the most traffic congested in the World. I am grateful to the universe for it not happening few days earlier in the midst of racing withe monster low, when 50 miles difference could have made things very dangerous specially if we were drifting sideways, or with our back fully exposed to the breaking 5-6 meters waves to the waves. Few days later while in the tight  Danish Straight with the wind abeam it could have proved disastrous as well. So here we are speeding happily in one piece after the monster low passage thanks to which we made some really good gains and were hoping for end of May in Poland. We then decide to add the mainsail as the wind is lightening up. So we roll the genoa and go adrift to recalibrate the autopilot and rudder indicator readings as it has been giving us some weird situations in the last few days. We calibrate 3 times eventually to a successful outcome verifying visually the rudder arm and hydraulic piston positions as we go along. Everything looks good finally and we start the engine to test and go upwind to raise the main, but then the boat goes on its on merry way in the direction opposite to what I am doing with the steering wheel. Full wheel to starboard, full to port, no effect on the heading. We stop. I start with looking for the fault with possible air in the hydraulics. So I first make sure there is enough hydraulic fluid in the system, then we bleed the system with no apparent problems found. The rudder arm is still moving in sync with the steering wheel.

    So I am a bit dumbfounded. So I finally have moment of enlightenment and look for the simplest confirmation of all at the source. I stick my head down from the central transom to find the rudder blade dancing with the waves happily and turning freely seemingly unrestricted around the rudder post. I was prepared for a lot of scenarios having only one rudder, but not for this one. I never thought you could twist off the blade from its post and still keep the blade. That’s the very good news. We sit down and think for a while and we come up with a bit of a crazy plan to build a new steering system on ropes and blocks.

    The key part of the plan is tying the the hitch (or a double loop) knot around the entire blade with the ropes sticking out to the sides of the trailing edge and leading them through a system of blocks to our existing steering wheel.So first Peter takes a dive, I am assisting from the transom, but he’s got so much buoyancy that he cant’s dive under the rudder, while the waves are throwing him back and forth making it impossible to use the boat hook to hook the loop at the bottom of the rudder blade. After about an hour we take a break and I conclude that we either get it done or we gonne have to call for help. Otherwise we gonna be drifting uncontrollably at night across world’s most frequented shipping lanes and eventually towards the rocky shores of Normandy. Not my favorite scenario.

    I dispatch few emails to start looking for assistance. Then I done the wet heavy wetsuit and put on 8 kg of lead on my weight belt so that this thick neoprene does not keep me so buoyant as to prevent diving on the rudder. I jump in with the loops perfectly aligned by Keeler’s (Pawel’s) electrical tape bands, I wait for a moment for the next wave to spring the back of the boat up i jump underneath and push hard against the bottom to submerge. I manage to reach the bottom edge of the rudder with my left hand and pull myself deeper. From this position putting on the loops is a mere formality I place them about halfway down the blade, resurface and scream to pull on the lines so that the loop tightens. It does perfectly, despite my momentary concern that I placed it backwards. We then tie the ends of the ropes from each side that are already lead through the blocks and steering wheel. Tighten the block and everything is ready to try. We first move the rudder while I am still in the water to make sure everything is correct. Than I jump out we start the engine and … IT IS WORKING!!! We are on the way. Under control. The steering is a bit funny not the least because we wound the rope around the steering wheel in reverse, so in order to go left you have to turn the wheel right. But it is working. We are now 15 miles from Cherbourg where I decided to head for repairs.

    In 2014 we stopped here when our propeller twisted off. As it turned out the marina has big ramp where we can float in at high water and make repairs at low water while the boat is standing stable on its four legs. It’s an awesome shortcut when you think of a 120 Ton crane as an alternative. Quick and cheap one. Keep your fingers crossed.

    Bartek

    We invite you to the next updates straight from the Ocean.

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    Stay safe and fair winds,

    May 26, 2021 0 comment
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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    Busy, busy, busy. Repairs and bad weather ahead ….

    by Bartek May 23, 2021

    (Day 16) Last 3 days was busy, busy, busy. First we were recovering from the gale 4-5 days ago. We checked the boat. Took care of few small leaks in hatches. Then…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    40 knots of wind and cooking oil on the floor

    by Bartek May 23, 2021

    (Day 11-14) Sorry for being silent for few days. It’s been busy here. Mostly because of the weather, but also because of some repairs along the way.  First we decided to make…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    50 000 nautical miles with our home trimaran!

    by Anna Dawidowska May 18, 2021

    Day 10. Hey guys! Yesterday and today we had few psychologically significant things happen. First of all our ground log that we installed with Ania when we bought the boat in 2014…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    We lost our spinnaker! … and then some exciting meeting in the middle of the Ocean

    by Anna Dawidowska May 18, 2021

    We have two pieces of info today. One good, and one bad one. The good one is that we are consistently managing to sail the windspeed. The bad one is that the…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    First days at Sea

    by Bartek May 15, 2021

    Hey guys! We are well into the second day of our voyage with over 300 miles behind us. We waited few days to pick just the right weather and so far it’s…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    WE SET OUT A CRUISE FROM THE CARIBBEAN TO GDAŃSK!

    by Bartek May 15, 2021

    Bartek and the 5-person crew set off on the first such long voyage of our Poly straight to Poland! There are over 5,000 nautical miles ahead of Bartek (i.e. about 9,000 kilometers!)…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    Before we left Caribbean – preparation for crossing

    by Bartek May 12, 2021

    …. that is, preparing the yacht and our whole family for a trip across the Atlantic. It was a very intense time in our floating house. Preparations for the expedition had been…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    Caribbean Volcano Erupts

    by Bartek April 9, 2021

    KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent and the Grenadines — A volcano in the southern Caribbean that had been dormant for decades erupted in a billowing blast of gray smoke Friday, spewing clouds of ash…

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  • Latest news from SailOceans

    Sailing adventure with Bartek Dawidowski across the Atlantic Ocean

    by Bartek January 26, 2021

    We’d like to invite you to a sailing adventure with Bartek Dawidowski across the Atlantic! All those who dream of crossing the vast void of the oceans harnessing the forces of nature…

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