Change of plans

TIME: 2021/06/10 02:32 UTC
LATITUDE: 15-51.41N
LONGITUDE: 159-23.27W
COURSE: 345T
SPEED: 4.8
WIND_SPEED (T): NE 21
WIND_DIR: 060T
Apparent Wind: 60 Deg, 22kt
Waves: NE 2-3M
Miles to Oahu, Hawaii: 350NM

COMMENT: Very boisterous sailing shall we say. I think Maple is currently two parts salt and one part fiberglass. Everyone has had more than their share of unintentional saltwater showers. Honestly, we would really like a break from these winds and seas...so if anyone could put in a good word for us, we would appreciate it!


Back in 2018 in the Bahamas we encountered an interesting failure on Maple. The issue was that a critical part that moves the rudders had sheered off completely on the starboard side. This meant that the starboard rudder was just flopping back and forth with no ability to control it and in turn offering no assistance in steering the boat. In addition, our autopilot relies on a sensor attached to the starboard rudder to be able to steer the rudders. At that time, we were very close to an island and just hand steered to a safe anchorage where we were able to find a welder to fix the part. We also took the opportunity to reinforce the same part on the port side as it was showing signs of fatigue.

Why do I share this story with you?! Any guesses?! Yes, the exact same thing has happened again. But this time of course we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no nearby safe anchorage to pop into to visit a welder. So it appears that a slight course change is necessary and a stop in Hawaii will, after all, be in our near future.

We are very fortunate to have cruising friends who are available to help out and we know a handful of cruisers who are either currently in Hawaii or have been there who are great resources for us. I know the community will help us where they can. Shaun has already reached out to the the boat's manufacturer to look into arranging new parts to be delivered from South Africa. I have reached out to another cruiser currently in Oahu with the exact same boat as ours to learn about possible aluminum or stainless fabricators who could build us what we need or worst case repair what we already have if shipping from South Africa is not a viable option. Plus friends are reaching out to the authorities in Hawaii to let them know we need to make an unscheduled stop for repairs. We are very fortunate as Canadians that we do not require any prior visas to enter, and are even welcome to stop in Covid times, but prior notice of our arrival is necessary. The only downside is we are not really in a great position to reach Hawaii. Remember all these days with us being pushed west by this persistent NE wind?! Well, we are going to have to undo all that with a lot of upwind bashing to get there. Currently we are sailing as north as we can and as we get closer to the Hawaiian chain we will likely drop the sails and turn into this mess of wind and waves to motor the rest of the way. We have plenty of fuel on board so one way or another we will make it there in hopefully 5 to 7 days.

As for the autopilot, we thankfully now have a backup autopilot on board which we bought back in Florida (after our time in the Bahamas). It is a completely separate system that does not rely on the sensor being attached to the rudder. With me hand steering for just 10 to 15 minutes, D had the backup installed and running. It is working amazingly well and so very grateful we do not need to hand steer to reach Hawaii. All is well on board with all of us. Maple is still sailing beautifully despite all her obstacles of being down a rudder, with a new autohelm in charge, in strong winds of 18-25kn and in large 2-3m seas. We are disappointed to not be able to make it non-stop to Alaska and depending on how long repairs take, we might need to skip Alaska altogether. But this whole adventure for us has been about adapting, staying flexible, and let's face it, perfect passages are not the ones discussed over sundowners. For now the only focus is reaching Hawaii safely and getting Maple patched up.