We made an unexpected stop this morning. Miserable autopilot failure. Not the first time on this boat. But boy has it been well behaved for the last 10,000+ Nautical miles.

 
That's No log...

Previous deaths of this particular unit:

• Lost Bolt (Atlantic 07)
• Broken Bolt (Atlantic 07)
• Broken Clutch (Atlantic 07)
• No Hydraulic Fluid (Caribbean 09)
• Loss of Hydraulic Fluid (Caribbean 10)
• Sheared Mounting (today, Morris Island)

We happened to be passing Morris Islands at the time, named for its troop of Morris men. There are none now. Due to the large log on the beach. Which ate them.

The correct thought to be having at this point is "Pull the other one its got bells on it". Morris island is a sand bar, with a shrubbery and a palm tree. As we arrived it had half the BWR anchored behind it. They saw us coming and Laruba, Blue Magic, Jackamy, Bionic, Sol Maria and Moonshadow all hopped it. Bad news travels fast. Moonshaddow doesn't officially join the rally till Darwin. Fortunately for them their skipper was wearing a St Lucian T-Shirt in the bar in Cairns that I'd never seen before and they got an early introduction to the rest of us. Turned out nicely, they've already joined the net and as you can see from above have the jump on the other boats in joining In Darwin.

We weren't going to stop at Morris Island, and only did so for a couple of hours. Much of which was spend excavating the coal reserve that is the Stbd cockpit locker to get at the hatch to the lazerette where the autopilot is. Fortunately we have a spare autopilot bought in fretful worry in Panama. Its installation took no time at all. I'm VERY familiar with Island Kea's autopilot.

This one has done well, it did the vast majority of the Atlantic, all around the Caribbean and the whole pacific. Its Failures were mostly, inadequate bolt, and of course, the ubiquitous Antigua Rigging who were supposed to fix its ancient twin, but instead charged a fortune to empty the cockpit locker and "Fix" it. This fix involved putting it back in with no hydraulic fluid in it which is pretty dumb. They also "fixed" it by putting the seal on the ram back in the wrong way around hence expelling all its hydraulic fluid.

Gavin from Sol Maria was the only man to venture ashore at Morris Island, we'd been told of the resident croc, all 4 meters of is. And I think even my dodgy aim-the-camera-through-the- binoculars- from-a-moving-boat image above will tell you, in true b3ta and starwars "that's no moon" styley. That's no log....