These small reflections arrived yesterday from Yrvind
A difficult night with one more gale and plenty of ships, included fishing boats, the worst because they have no destination and right of way and I have some problems to maneuvrate. The steering system will be much better on next design which I am working on. Things are calming down so I am working up enough courage to go on the foredeck to raise the daggerplate and set a sail. The original intention was to handel them from the forehatch but there is to much stuff there now. The solution is to eat the food and rearrange things. Progress is as you can see slow but I am nearly finished with Bay of Biscay.
Ipad is fantastic. I have open Europe, Africa and America charts and three routes to Dingle, Cape Finistare and Madeira. That way I can triangulate my position. I use very little food and water, eating only once a day for health reasons. Bay of Biscay was in its June gloom mode but now after 2 weeks the sun is appearing.
Got shock today. Port rudder did not work. Was blocked. At first impossible to understand unless the piston that keeps the saltwater on the outside of the inside steering ropes has got stucked. I went back and applied force to the tiller. Likewise blocked. Finally I looked down in the water, the rudder blade had rotated 90 degrees forward. Some idiot had made a bad knot. Not easy to fix but with the help of a rope I got some leverage and it swung back to its proper position. It was a bit rough and I got my shirt wet. However after fixing the problem I thought that the idiot deserved a new shirt. The old one been on for more than 3 weeks, but the moral is good.
Regards Yrvind.