Vagaries on the way to Yeu

Finally we were able to set sails. But not to Ré island as expected on previous post, but rather to Yeu island. And this, for two reasons, a lack of wind expected in coming days while we need to be in Vannes on Saturday to collect a crew member, and a one day delay in departing because of a failure of the drinking water pump that we had to change. 

But this was by no means the end of the vagaries...

A few miles from Yeu, we suddenly lost control of the steering wheel of the boat, which started moving erratically. It took some time to get the spare tiller in the bottom of the ship's chests, to remove the slatted floor, and get it installed. As for steering the boat and its two rudders with such a short tiller, forget it! You need to push or pull very heavily to get the boat to start moving sideways, and then to revert to avoid over turning. We were puzzled by the two holes on the extremity of the tiller. Probably to fit some rope there and use the winches, but we were not sure how to do this and when it happens, you have no time to think much about it (if any reader knows how to use such tiller, please comment!). Not to mention that the one operating the tiller has neither view to the chart plotter nor to the front of the boat...

Spare tiller on an OVNI 445

Our luck came when we realised that the pilot would still steer the boat. Then we continued our way towards  Yeu but decided not to attempt entering the main marina in Port Joinville but rather to anchor in the Anse des Vieilles on the south west in order to repair there. The entire anchoring was conducted using the pilot as a steer, while there were quite a few boats around.

The repair took just a few minutes, once the boat chests were evacuated to grant access below the cockpit. The rod on the picture above is connecting the steering wheel to the rudders. As you will remember, the rudders were changed during the winter (see previous posts) and a distracted worker forgot to put a washer back under the nut to hold the axle in place. Tyvärr! I cannot imagine what would have happened if it got loose while manoeuvring in Port Joinville, given the heavy winds that we ended-up getting.

Yet, we are not the first OVNI having similar bad experiences with rudder issues, see post by Cybèle 17.

It was fine until anchoring, but we noticed this roll cloud coming sideways towards us as we were head to wind at anchor. As it passed over us, the direction of the wind changed by more than 90°, to face the roll cloud, and its strength went up to 25 knots. Another of the vagaries as the forecast was for light winds. The night was awful as Belisama got rolling crazily for a good part of it. But the situation became quite catastrophic on the main land, with very severe hail storms destroying cars and vineyards.

The Anse des Vieilles is one of the spot not to miss in most sailing guide books. So indeed, we had a chance to experience its beauty before heading finally safely to Port Joinville.