Please see link in first post for the day by day unfolding. Click on daily breadcrumb for log entry.
https://www.olmsteadwilliams.com/christians-journey/
The vane failure was caused by the shearing of a single $20 Wichard eye bolt--the central bolt on the ship's quadrant. The pull is side to side, nd the hefty bolt was apparently worked beyond its limits. They're not rated for side forces, but given that only the eye was exposed and the bolt buried in mahogany, I figured no problem. I replaced it with an enormous padeye pirated from my cockpit tether mount . A bit of entertainment to drill bronze on a moving quadrant in a seaway. But the issue is solved. The Cape Horn worked as well as the Sailomat. But vanes DDW in Force 7 with big seas and 20-degree shifts in gusts require at lot of tending and adjustment. I was not pleased by the fact that the entire Cape horn installation is belowdecks and difficult to access or inspect.
I don't know why the CF pole broke in half under fairly benign conditions. Carbon Fibre is not robust. I was able to saw it up and use the parts to make a serviceable pole now fixed at 14 feet, and that is good enough for the trip home. I was glad to have my usual complete workshop of tools aboard and used all of them.
The Pacific was relatively cool all the way, evidence that something nonstandard was going on with the trades--at least in my experience . I was in long johns and sweaters till the very end. I'll be checking to see if that had the very pleasant effect of suppressing hurricanes rising to the Hawaii latitude, lately a concern on this route .
The final irritation was motoring upwind yesterday through the tiny channel that leads to Ko Olina harbor, the last mile. The anemometer read 35 knots and I had to dock unassisted, which was hairy. This on the
leeward side of the island....
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