There's been this very ugly noise since we left San Diego that originates from a rather important piece of equipment - the autopilot. Basically, it's a hydraulic arm (Autohelm Linear Drive, Type 2) that is making a spectacular amount of noise as it whirrs and grinds to keep the boat on course. What's worse, it's mounted underneath my bed, which makes sleep difficult. Who knows how long it's been going on - it could have been since Seattle (since I got the boat, really) but I'd never noticed before because when I slept in that bed while underway before, we were motoring between Seattle and Eureka, so the engine noise overrode the autopilot drive arm noise. And of course, from Eureka to San Diego I caught my catnaps in the cockpit while underway. So today I've had enough, and have re-installed the backup autopilot to give the primary one a rest. I can't find any information in the user or installation manuals that would indicate what I can do about it, but it's fairly easy to take out, so I'll remove it tomorrow at anchor and take a good look. Basically, it sounds like someone put a handfull of small screws into the arm, so each movement is a metal-on-metal ***grind***. If anyone has any suggestions, please send them along to my sailmail address if you have it, or tt@tacotraveler.com otherwise. Thanks in advance! [Edit: all fixed!]
Oh yeah, and we changed course from Mazatlan and are now headed for Isla Isabela, which is a Mexican National Park where Jaques Cousteau once visited because of the endangered population of Frigate birds and Boobies. Have I ever mentioned I once dated (for a year, actually, so more than "dated") the daughter of a woman who once dated Jaques Cousteau's son (Jean-Jaques, I think his name is? [Edit: It's Jean-Michel]). So Kara Kaufman (who's mum has my favorite ex-girlfriend's mom's name ever, Mary Memory), here's your self-Googling hit of the day. Hi!
Anyway... where was I? So we're heading for Isla Isabela and will stop there for a rest, and then over to Chacala. We skipped the Mazatlan plan because the winds and seas last night were crazy, and they just didn't want us to go that direction. Not comfortably, anyway. So we turned to the SE and are now on a heading that will take us 20+ miles north of the prison (penal colony?) on the Islas Marias. If you get within 20 miles of those islands you risk getting boarded and detained by the Mexican Navy. No, we weren't trying to rescue Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen (see Papillon).
TT
