No good news yet

You know, today was a particularly beautiful spring day, just blue as blue. And I am still in awe of the blooms that are bursting forth on every bush and tree. Garden beds are full of colour and the shops are selling pots of colour outside every door. It really is a beautiful time to be in this part of California. Yet here in our little micro world of boats, boat people and boat parts....the only thing blooming is Geoff's frustration.


Another day spent in the depths of our aft cabin and cockpit lockers trying to resolve the Auto steering debarkle. Geoff sought advice from a local handyman, looked at a similar one on another persons yacht, made numerous phone calls. And in the end we bit the bullet and bought the combination of parts that make up a new steering system. Geoff still had his doubts that the Rudder sensor would fit and he was right. After more time spend measuring it in fine increments, he knew that he couldn't get it to fit without cutting into a rear bulkhead. Not what you want to do to a nice well built yacht. I won't go into any detail as to the agonising that went on for the next hour, but finally a technician was available to come out and look at in person. YAY! Everyone is very busy in the marine industry here at the moment due to the BIG boat show that is on in early April, biggest on the West Coast of the USA. So all the tradies and techies are flat strap.


Good news - he reckons he could get it to fit, just. Bad news - he was horrified that we were going to do such a big passage relying on this particular model of the Autohelm!!! Geoff said he was pretty concerned and suggested we really needed the beefier model to handle what our boat weighed and what we are going to ask the unit to handle. Rats. We know how rotten and difficult and agonising and torturous hand steering would be....all the way back to Australia. The cost of repairing or replacing a unit once in the Pacific would be exorbitant. He left us with a promise to ring back with a quote for the bigger, better, beefier model. He did. AND you don't want to know the cost! Needless to say, tonight we have been doing some more sums.


Tomorrow we will decide what to do. Return the unit we just bought and buy the BBB one OR keep the one we just bought and get the worried tech to install it. And hope that we can gently cradle the unit past the heavier conditions off of San Francisco area into the easier seas of the Pacific.


It could be a restless nights sleep.