The price of Freedom!

Well the Autopilot saga continues.

My big project is fitting a tiller arm to my rudder post for the drive unit. I was planning to buy one from Edson but was shocked to find that it was nearly $500.00. I can’t justify paying that much for a piece of machined bronze. I did a little more digging and found that Buck Algonquin also makes one for less then half the price. I’m going to order one today. If you’re not familiar with Buck Algonquin they make marine hardware. You can download their catalogue here:

/portals/0/videos/buckalgonquin.pdf

I called Raymarine and couldn’t get a straight answer about the length of the drive attachment to the tiller arm. They were not too inspired to help my out with tech support on such an old drive. If anyone is good with graphs or sees what I’m missing, please enlighten me. The graph is on page 24 of the owner’s manual, fig. 23.

/portals/0/videos/AH6000.pdf

Splendid is 10 tons net, and I’m assuming about 30,000 pounds wet. I don’t understand the “Planing & Displacement lines”?

All I really need to go sailing is a GPS & Autopilot. I’d really like solar panels and a windvane but they are not in the cards for the moment.

I’m spending my evenings pouring over charts trying to see my path. I really want to visit Brazil and the Amazon. By looking at the pilot charts (wind/currents) sailing through the Caribbean isn’t too appealing. The way to do it is via Bermuda, Azores and the West African coast. This entails crossing the Atlantic twice, but its all down wind. Going back to Panama really puts me in a “Pacific” mode again which is a possibility, but I’ve already seen much of it. The fun of my life is watching it unfold so it’s all exciting to me.

Peace, Love, and Coconuts everyone.

Sail far and live slowly.

Alex