Day 39, Tuesday January 12, 1999

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Neal Petersen was hoping to leave behind the Indian Ocean and enter the Tasman Sea with lighter winds and smaller waves. He was hoping to finish within the next two weeks. He still had to cover 1417 miles.

South Carolina © Photo Billy Black

At the same time, Robin Davie was approaching a 3000 mile mark from the finish. He wrote: "The last 24 hours have probably been amongst the most difficult of any 24-hour period during any of the 3 Around Alone races I've been a part of. Gales force winds, with Storm force squalls, and no proper autopilot or steering mechanism functioning properly. With the Autopilot not steering a proper course, we changed over to the monitor windvane, and it took awhile to get the steering lines set up and tensioned correctly before we could hoist more sail to get a bit of speed going. We had gybed the boat onto the northeasterly heading to come north a bit, and hopefully find some lighter weather, as well as to come north for the 46 degree north waypoint line."

Robin discovered loose bolts on his steering arms attached to rudder stock. It required a great effort to tighten the loose bolts. He described it himself: "After many, many goes and another hour - with spanners and grips that I could not reach to hold in place, we managed to get all 8 bolts rock solid tight, and a quadrant that's not slipping anymore. A major achievement in a stern going up and down, with a rudder that wouldn't stay still."

© Photo Richard Konkolski

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

Copyright © Richard Konkolski
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