Day 11

OMG! What a night!  So wind has picked up and do have waves. I’ve had gusts of over 32 knots and waves of up to 5 meters. But with a boat like Arkyla that’s not an issue. Do you remember how I said a couple of days ago that I heard a weird noise from the transom (stern) and wondered what to wear in the life raft…? Well, as everyone was going to bed last night (except me, who was on watch),  James looked yet again into the transome space and then realized that the rudder had dropped 5mm. That is very concerning for a couple of reasons: if it has dropped a little, will it drop more? Could it fall out? If it would fall out we’d be left with a big hole in the boat…. The other issue was that the drop made the top of it slip out of the stabilizer so it got all wobbly. We worried that that could end up cracking the hull. James and Michael used the emergency rudder to grab the top of the rudder stock and then tied it to the side with rope and winch and stuffed some cloths. We then contacted race control and let them know what is going on (so far their only action was to increase our locator ping to every hour instead of every 4 hours) and radioed the boat we had been close to for a day-Aria Legra. Turned out their alternator is broken so they have no electricity! They are sailing double handed so I feel for them! But it was good to know they were there. We also prepared high capacity bilge pump, and got the Go Bag ready with meds and passports plus the usual safety stuff. It is really sobering to pack the Go Bag…. Then Michael Mark and I took shifts at the help while James did admin stuff while also constantly chevking the transom for issues (we have a little bit of water coming in) at every little sound.  None of us got any sleep really. The fix and the auto pilot got us through the night ok. In the morning - everything feels better in daylight - James and Michael, our handyman duo, got a circular saw out and cut out a donut shaped piece of wood to better stabilize the rudder. They also saw that the rudder has a couple of bolts so we think it can’t just fall off, which is a huge relief.

We’ve tried to slow the boat down to put less pressure on the rudder, but ironically we can’t. Even with just a handkerchief up we’re going 7 knots. I’m concerned to about trying to slow the boat down now when the waves are so steep-you need speed to steer down them or the boat can broach (turn sideways and roll.). And after we dipped the boom in the water (which really scared me - but it was fine) we had to take her off auto pilot. It can’t handle the waves…

Anyways, long sleep deprived entry for this very memorable night! We feel quite positive that we’ll get into Grenada, and that it might be already on Friday.