We got the repaired autopilot back and Steve reinstalled it, but when we left anchor October 27, it wouldn't hold a course. It was a bad way to start the Haha and made us miss the start by a half an hour or so because Steve was on the phone to Raymarine while we were motoring toward the starting line, doing 360s trying to calibrate the thing, and needing to fill up with water. Too much tension!
On day two, after hand-steering all night in 4-foot swells downwind with the sails rigged for wing and wing, Steve wondered if maybe something metal had been placed near the autopilot compass. Sure enough! We moved the nefarious metal objects and the autopilot kicked in. Ahhh, it's good to relax behind the wheel.
We had 10-20 knots of wind and so we sailed all day and night and didn't turn on the engine until the morning of the third day when the wind died to less than 3 knots. We had made over 250 miles under sail and had hit 10 knots on the boat speed meter. No complaints!
Brian had rigged up our rag-tag fishing gear and we caught a nice size yellow fin tuna. He and Kat are well acquainted with the San Francisco gourmet scene and Brian marinated and cedar plank smoked it while Kat prepared a scrumptuous salad and veggies.
We got into Bahia Tortuga early Thursday morning, Oct. 30, beer thirty, after motoring for half a day (no wind). Time to brush up on our Spanish and head into the little town.
The great sea makes one a great sceptic. ~Richard Jefferies
