How quickly situations can change and how unexpectedly. Saturday afternoon we were all commenting on what a pleasurable, smooth passage we were having. It was about 04:30 on Sunday morning, my watch (it would be!), winds were behind us at around 25 knots with occasional gusts up to 30/31 knots, seas were moderate with 2 metre waves and the genoa was goose-winged and poled out. I had just moved from the port to the starboard helm checking for ships on the horizon (the nav screens at the helms had given up the ghost again). I heard the foresail slam and saw the autopilot had failed. I took the helm and Robin appeared up on deck quickly followed by Nic and Miranda. In the pitch black night we were all disorientated and at our lowest ebb at that time in the morning resulting in crash gybing, the spinnaker pole breaking in two and losing a couple of winches before the boom could be brought under control. In daylight we tried to assess the damage but realised it would have to wait until we were at anchor. The hydraulics (likely problem with the autopilot) are buried under the dinghy and we didn't want to put any unnecessary strain on the rig while still sailing.
With nearly 500 miles left to Panama and no autopilot we were reduced to hand steering to the compass, tiring in the following sea. We decided to cover our usual watches but in pairs; an hour and half was more than enough at the helm and it meant there was someone to take over if one needed to leave the wheel.
Nearly 48 hours later we approached Port Cristobal, Panama, feeling it was prudent to anchor for the rest of the night and go into Shelter Bay Marina in daylight. The last few hours kept us occupied keeping an eye on the myriad of ships arriving and departing from this busy hub especially as we lacked the benefit of charts with radar and AIS displays on deck. Miranda stayed at the chart table inside relaying information to the helmsman.
