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BOHalfway between Australia and Indonesia the bolt holding the trim tab onto my monitor windvane sheared off in heavy following seas. The culprit was ironically the safety wire which had collected so much seaweed that it popped the trim tab into its neutral position which in turn torqued the bolt in a way it's not designed to withstand
I crouched over the windvane with my lower half getting repeatedly dunked by the waves while I managed to line up the trim tab and re-secure it with another bolt. Some people ask why I didn't heave to and the answer is simple. Hove-to would mean the waves would be hitting Gecko on her beam, which would swing the windvane arm back and forth making it nearly impossible to hold onto. With Dan steering a straight course through the waves, the arm remained vertical and I was able to reattach the trim tab without trying to chase the arm back and forth
It was an intense situation and required a huge amount of strength as I was hanging on by wrapping my feet around the windvane and leaning out over the back of the boat to use both arms for the repair. Seeing the waves from waterline level was pretty cool but I'm not sure it's an experience I want to replicate any time soon
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