Back in Good Shape -

There is a great cruiser buddy here with us that we are able to check and send emails through. We found the perfect anchorage! We have sand beaches and a huge sand shelf with occasional coral heads that are just perfect for the children to practice their snorkeling with the sharks, coral, and a cornucopia of tropical fishes. Then of course there are the hermit crabs, lizards, and other creatures that the children just love.

We will probably be here for a couple more days before heading off to undetermined locations.

So shortly after hitting the reef we started having difficulty steering. As we went out the pass at Toau I had to spin the wheel from one side to the other just to keep us going in the general direction that we wanted to go. Then when we used the auto-helm it was making a crazy sound, and sometimes just not working. When we arrived at the Apataki pass we ended up going nearly sideways a couple of times no matter how hard I turned the rudder, Then when we were sailing in the lagoon I had the rudder all the way over just to steer straight!  It was at this point that I decided that there might be something more wrong with the steering than just having one rudder.  So I grabbed the steering ram and pulled on it. I was able to move it about 45 degrees just by hand.  Not good!

After adding a bunch of hydraulic fluid the steering stiffened right up! It is really nice to be able to steer again!  Also the new system for the sails appears to be working great!  We were sailing with 20 knots with no issue.  We will know better when we get to Tahiti. I heard the boats going now are hitting 50 knots!  That will wake you up!

Courage