RickyD
Guru
- Joined
- May 4, 2018
- Messages
- 735
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Aquarius
- Vessel Make
- Californian 55 CPMY
So its a beautiful day, no wind, no waves, perfect for a putt putt around the harbor. So I decide to take a short cruise to see some friends in a neighboring marina. Alamitos Bay where there is a long narrow channel protected by breakwaters on both sides. Playing with my new Furuno electronics, I set a waypoint in front of the channel, told the system to go there an off we went, me and a pal. As I hit the waypoint, I turned into the channel and went about 150 yards and then realized I had lost my steering. So, ok I put the port engine in reverse and starboard forward. Well, I wasn't really twisting as expected, but I got turned a bit, port neutral, forward stbd and now I'm turning back to stbd. The rudders must have turned. So I keep messing with port, stbd, forward, reverse and I end up out of the channel. Yes I have a bow thruster but I tried to deal with the situation without it. In the mean time I had broadcast a warning to other boats and had spoken with the Lifeguard Boat. Now that I have cleared the channel I was ready to dive into the problem. You see, for the last couple years I have noted that the pressure in my steering hydraulic system has been sloooowly dropping. I kept telling myself, soon I was going to get out my bicycle pump and refill and repressurize the system. So I had a pretty good idea what may have gone wrong. Then my buddy said "why don't you try the down helm". Well I did and it worked so I drove her back to our dock. Refilled, repressurized, and tested the fix. I hope I learned my lesson.