Tonight the wind vane steering system suddenly did not work anymore, the vane was set full in one direction but the boat did not follow its course. This could only mean one thing: a shark must have eaten the rudder…. When I had a closer look, the rudder blade was indeed gone, but there was no bite marks so a shark probably was not the culprit. The blade had simply broken off, therefore the wind vane wasn’t working anymore. Because I need the wind vane so that Guppy heads into the right direction when I am not steering manually, I put in the reserve rudder blade. This was not too easy, because in the meantime the wind had strenghtened for good. Moreover, working with screw , nuts and bolts from a half submerged swimming platform is not that easy, but in the meantimeI was joined by a school of dolphins which swam around Guppy. Now Guppy is running with the wind vane again. The dolphins have stayeduntil now, and it is the first school I have seen since the Cape Verde Islands, so this was very nice.

Laura