Doug and Kyle Hopkins (members of our church), and their daughters Eliza and Abigail, set sail in October, 2003, for an around the world voyage on their sailboat, Estrela. Here is their most recent post (Oct. 12, 2005) on a passage from Fiji to New Caledonia, on the way to Australia.
Estrela is on the move again after a little over three months cruising in Fiji. We're en route to New Caledonia. As is typical at the beginning of an ocean passage, the crew have queazy tummies and we all feel very tired . . . and it's only our first night! The push to complete a myriad of preparations before going offshore always induces anxiety. This was probably our smoothest and most efficient (and enjoyable) passage preparation ever . . . and we still feel whupped. Our first big challenge underway has been a misbehaving self-steering windvane, forcing Kyle and me to do a lot of hand-steering or hand-correcting of the windvane. Hand-steering gets exhausting quickly for a two-handed boat like ours. Fortunately, just in the last hour or so I have managed to bring Estrela into better balance by tinkering with sail trim and adjusting the windvane controls. Her track under windvane alone is wobbly but is averaging within 10 degrees either side of our intended rhumb line course for New Caledonia. I have to tug on the tiller to put her back on course about every ten or fifteen minutes now -- a big improvement. I think the Aries's problem is too much friction, probably occurring in many places rather than in one key place. It's just time for another servicing, or at least for replacing some of the most critical nylon bushings. As Tony Holt, Kyle's dad, can attest, however, taking the Aries windvane apart to replace these nylon parts is a real bear. He and I spent many days doing a complete servicing and rebuild in the Holt's Connecticut barn two years ago. I think Tony had to call in a favor from every machine shop in Eastern Connecticut to enable us to dismantle the twenty-five year cast aluminum and stainless steel contraption. I hope we can nurse the vane along to Australia where we'll be able to service it again. In the meantime -- as our Brit/Aussie friends would say -- no whinging by the Estrela watch keepers! Doug
God Speed--Doug, Kyle, Eliza, Abbie
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