Salvador to Aratu without steering wheel 😰

Cami De Conto

Yes, that is correct, we went sailing without the steering wheel! It was not by option, of course. It all started a few days earlier, when we left the marina to watch the opening of the carnaval by boat. On our way back, manoeuvring inside the marina, our steering cable broke. We were very lucky because it happens when we were already placed in front of our box, at the moment that Jurri put on the backward gear to enter the box. There was no wind, no swell, and there was a staff waiting at the dock to get our lines, with his dinghy. He then jumped on his dinghy, started pulling us into the box, and our neighbours from both sides were at home, so they also went on deck to get some of our ropes and help pulling us in. Luckily we didn’t touch any of them, and they were both brand new Oysters, that were part of the Oyster World Rally. It was quite difficult to get someone to come onboard and help us out during carnival. Finally, we got a good option to get Songster fixed in Aratu, a few miles up inside the bay. At first I thought it was crazy to go out of the safety of the marina without the steering wheel. But jurri assured me that we wouldn’t have any problem, as our autopilot has its own cables, and also has a remote control, so he could steer the boat from the control, as if he was playing videogame 😅😅 My brother was visiting with his family, and they must have thought we are crazy ahaha but they joined the adventure, so I guess they trusted us. We asked for the marina staff to manoeuvre us inside the marina, then we used the control until we were out of the marina. The wind was great and day was beautiful, so he opened the 150% Genoa and sailed downwind to Aratu. Upon our arrival in Aratu, we contacted the marina and they also came with their dinghy to manoeuvre us and moor us safely. Time to get our hands dirty and fix the cables! What really happened is that the chain that connects the two cables broke, so we had to replace the chain. But after an inspection on the cables, we saw that they were both of them about to break, so as a preventive maintenance, we decided to change everything. And we also bought spares of everything. Next time we can fix it ourselves, but I hope it won’t be anytime soon 😜