March 5, 2004

This morning at about 11am we raised anchor to head further North in the lagoon to try to find some more protection from the strong winds we have been experiencing for the last few days. Since Monday or Tuesday it has been blowing like hell between 15 and 30k, sometimes peaking at 34k. Our protection was good at the anchorage at Bauejin (bow-jin) Island (as we learned it was called) but the wind was very unnerving.

We motored North in winds of 20-30k for about 8.5 miles till we reached the Northern end of the atoll and anchored in 30-35ft of water behind Enejelar (en-jaa-leer) Island. The wind here is considerably calmer as the island is very large and is oriented better for protection from the NE winds. We are seeing winds between 13 and 19k whereas just a half mile South before we came in the lee of this island we had 25-28k. Additionally, the water is very calm with no white caps around and only a slight chop.

The skies are clear with about 20-25% cloud cover and the sun is shining nicely. These trade winds (known as reinforced trades due to the high pressure cell to our North which is feeding them) should abate in the next few days and go back to the normal 15k we want.

Unfortunately, we have one negative item to report. Just as we raised the anchor the autopilot circuit board burned out and we have no A/P. Of course, I have no spare board for the autopilot. Fortunately, we do have a mechanical wind vane which steers the boat wonderfully while sailing and we will use that for the trip back to Majuro in a couple of weeks. By then we should have Simrad send us a new circuit board which will be waiting for us (hopefully) when we arrive. Although I have not removed the board yet to inspect it, we are quite sure it has burned since the smell is unmistakable coming from the locker where the A/P brain box is mounted (nothing else is in that particular space).

Additionally, we burned out the same board 2 years ago in New Zealand. At that time we discovered it was the hydraulic pump motor which was causing the problem. A buildup of carbon from brush wear had apparently caused the motor to draw double or triple the normal amount of current it is designed to use and this overloaded the circuit which feeds it power. You would think a fuse would be placed in that circuit to prevent that from happening. At that time we bought a new pump (after we had the board fixed) and sent the old one back to be reconditioned. Of course, not having thought this through properly I am now in possession of a spare hydraulic pump which I can't use since the circuit is burned out.