Day 43 – Part 2: Change of course, Rudder, A run for shipping lanes

12 Apr, 07 – 21.30    
16.5770N,35.5808W

This a continuation of my previous post. (Its been a long day!)
The radar alarm has been dead silent for the past few days, as I go thru the remotest leg of the route. My current positions puts me approx. 300 nautical miles from the nearest shipping lanes New-York to Recife or Curacao- Freetown, right in the middle of the Atlantic.
In the light of the difficulty in fixing the water leak, my priority at present is getting to a less remote part of the ocean than present.
So this afternoon, I took the decision to put the rudder back on an make a run for the safety of the triangle formed by the Curaco–Freetown shipping lane to the south, Trinidad–Gibralter at the West and New York- Rio to the East.
The weather forecast, predicts 10-15kt NE - ENE down to 10 kt on weekend.
West of 36W, more ENE-E winds, steady at 10-15 kt. This is good news.
Fingers crossed the back of the stern holds and that the leak does not get any worse. Will keep trying to find a fix for it. For now, I've lashed the rudder with additional support lines that raises the rudder slightly out of the water, so there is less surface area and less water pressure. I've also added 2 more tiller lines on either side, to distribute some of the horizontal pressure upwards. Ive tied some plastic bags around the pin on which the rudder will be placed, so it forms a kind of padding to act as a shock absorber.
Putting the rudder back was a bit like trying to change the wheels on a moving car. It took be about 4 hours, re-living the charade I went thru to take it off. A quick re-inaction reads somewhat like this
“The rudder is too big to be pushed thru the rear hatch of the cabin. So it has to be fitted from outside the boat. Put the rudder out from the side and tie two lines, one primary and one secondary. It lets the rudder drag thru the water without floating away. Throw one end of the primary line towards the rear hatch. Open the hatch, lean out and drag the rudder to the back of the boat. Tie the primary to the stern. Close all hatches. Get into the water. Make sure that the plastic padding is on the hinges. Lift the rudder up and try to mount it on the pins. No good. Get back in the boat. Open the rear hatch again. Lean out. Pull the rudder up. Wait for the large waves to pass. Place the rudder on the pin. Push it down. Grab the tiller lines from either side. The unsecured rudder is banging around the back. Quickly, pull the lines thru the side rings and on to the cleats at the front. Lock the tiller lines down. Relax”
I haven't put a locking pin into the rudder, in case I need to take it out again at short notice or in bad weather.
With the rudder back on, I've steered the boat back on course to fairly steady bearing, between 260 – 290 degrees, wind at the stern and an improvement in speed. All in all, quite a productive day. In a better spirits.
B
WOULD APPRECIATE NO MESSAGES OR CALLS ON THE SATELLITE PHONE. THE LINE IS BEING KEPT OPEN FOR EMERGENCY USE. Instead, pls direct messages thru the messages section on the website at http://www.bhavik.com/crossatlantic/messages.asp. These are forwarded to me at the end of each day.
(EXCEPTIONS: Erden, Tatiana, Tiny, Hicks, Leven, Larsson, Kalisinski, Haglnd, Ambani)

Shipping lanes on the Pilot Chart, marked in Green

Tying lines to the rudder on deck

The rudder finally secured to the stern