Things break on boats. You expect it and you hope you will be prepared. Minutes into our next leg towards the Torres Islands, disaster struck. An oil line on the port engine broke. And of course, the port engine on Shaka drives the hydraulic steering.
So there we were, 110nm across open ocean from home base at Luganville, with one engine and no hydraulic steering. With a charter looming, we had no choice but to set out. And as is often the case, one disaster leads to another. Conditions were rough heading into the prevailing trade winds and 20nm short of Luganville the steering mechanism broke leaving us drifting towards the reef 2nm away.
When things get tough, the tough get going and Captain Jared proved his seamanship that day. He blocked off the oil return line, replaced the oil and restarted the port engine. On low revs it gave us steering and we were on our way.
As he says, "It's 10% about the fishing and 90% about the boat."
So there we were, 110nm across open ocean from home base at Luganville, with one engine and no hydraulic steering. With a charter looming, we had no choice but to set out. And as is often the case, one disaster leads to another. Conditions were rough heading into the prevailing trade winds and 20nm short of Luganville the steering mechanism broke leaving us drifting towards the reef 2nm away.
When things get tough, the tough get going and Captain Jared proved his seamanship that day. He blocked off the oil return line, replaced the oil and restarted the port engine. On low revs it gave us steering and we were on our way.
As he says, "It's 10% about the fishing and 90% about the boat."