"We have lost Steering!”

08th Jul 2010

The weather on waking at Percy Island was not good and more importantly, was worse than forecast. I therefore made the decision to up anchor and head for Mackay before the predicted 30 kts Southerlies came in. Setting full sails we took off at 7 kts on a beautiful 15 kts beam reach. As we cleared the island, the 15 kts grew to 20 kts and the seas chopped up a little but as we ‘flashed’ across the waves and ignored the grey skies and falling rain; all was well. At least, all was well until I announced: “we have just lost steering!” as the wheel spun freely in my hand. A very unhappy state indeed!

Now part of my preparation of Pilgrim was a new direct drive auto pilot. A large part of this decision (and expenditure) was that in the event of a steering linkage failure, the autopilot would still have control. My first moves upon experiencing the steering loss then, was the haul on the main, furl the headsail and engage the auto pilot into wind. This all happen quickly and as planned so the boat was almost immediately under control again. Even though I had been monitoring the steering system for a few days, the problem was not in the cable run so for the next 45mins Paul and I dismantle the steering quadrant in order to see and analyse the problem. This we did and came up with a repair that held all the way to Mackay. Basically, a drive cog has slipped off its keyway, allowing the keyway to fall out. Fortunately I found the key in the bilge and with the aid of the ‘magic of zip locks’, repositioned the cog a locked it in place.

With that little diversion out of the way we continued on our way to Mackay but as the trip was going to be cold and wet and involved a number of course changes to avoid islands and shoals, the day was likely to be a long one. As things turned out however, we made really good time, turning a potentially 12 hrs trip into a 10 hour trip (plus the lost hour when disabled). This got us into Mackay just on dark after a quite eventful trip.

Apart from the steering issues, we had a great dolphin visit by a bunch of little guys who seemed to be in competition for who could leap furthest from the water. They stayed for probably 20 – 30 minutes in all and offered a great diversion from the rain. The other event was yet another distant whale sighting, Just a tail but still cause for excitement as was a similar sighting by Carla two days before. We are, of course, yet to get the shot but we will keep trying!

A final saga occurred later in the trip when Carla commented on a small island off the starboard bow. As I looked I said, “no its not and island, it is in fact a very large bulk carrier”. Up to now, I had not bothered to turn on the AIS (automatic Identification System) as I didn’t expect heavy traffic. Going below to do so, I said that I may as well turn the thing and get some use out of it. Upon return to the cockpit, I pscaled out the plotter scale to get a wider view (the plotter shows AIS traffic as little boat icons) to be utterly shocked by the sight of 60, yes 60, returns right on our track. This turned out to be the pilotage area for Hay Point, which I believe is coal, but I certainly had no idea of the scale of the operation or the number a vessels involved. Over the next 2 hours we sailed our way through this maze of anchored vessels and managed to avoid the 1 or 2 that were underway. Never again will I leave the AIS off when in shipping lanes!

Arriving at the entrance of the harbour we manoeuvred in via the three sets of leads, the very lumpy entrance and what is becoming, the ever present kayaker traffic, to find ourselves inside a vast harbor surrounded by breakwaters that must be 10 m high at least. The tide in this place is huge and it is of course within the cyclone risk area. Finding the berth was typically challenging but we secured in our allocated spot, happy with the day complete.