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Thursday 22nd July
During the night the wind got up gusting 20knots at times. It also changed direction. This meant the catamaran that had anchored rather close along side of us was now a boat length off the back of us. We think he was a bit concerned, but couldnt do anything about it as we were now over the top of his anchor.
Anyway we had already decided that we would head off to Airlie Beach today, so we hauled anchor, set the sails and headed north.
Only an hour into the journey with Andrew on the helm, there was a bang and no steering. Andrew told Lydia to stay in the cockpit as he went below. “We have lost steering” he said to Sue as he rushed through the galley to the rear cabin. There he pulled back the bedding and mattress, grabbed the emergency tiller and dropped it in place. Poking his head up through the hatch he called to Lydia “which way do i go?” With Lydia calling the directions, we were soon back on course before an accidental jib could happen.
Sue and Lydia swapped positions. Sue called the directions to Andrew who couldnt see where we were going, while Lydia removed the preventer and centered the main. For Sue to be heard, she had to bend down and shout through the hatch between her legs. We had only just put away the Staysail before this happened. Sue started the motor. All this took some pressure off the tiller making it more managable.
Lydia in her engineering mode quickly came up with a harness and pully system that made tillering easier and mounted a compass. Then Andrew and Lydia swapped places, so Andrew could check out what had happened.
Three out of four bolts on part of the steering mechanism had sheared off. We couldn’t do anything about it with the motor on or while steering the boat. South Molle Island was only 1 and 1/2 hours away and on the way to Airlie, so we headed for that. With Sue calling directions and Lydia on the tiller, the expert crew pulled into the bay, pointed into the wind, dropped the main and anchored safely.
It only took half an hour to replace the bolts with temporary ones and we were off again. We think we can get the right bolts in Airlie Beach. Its good to have the helm working again.