Hey Tom,

I don't know, I still think the loss of power was the real deal-breaker/final straw in this one...

2 things I'm absolutely paranoid about, when sailing offshore, and am checking and re/checking constantly... First, the status of the bilge, and second, the state of the batteries... Especially, if sailing under autopilot, I'm stealing a glance at the battery monitor ALL the time...

One thing that really jumped out at me in Charlie's account, was that they apparently had no idea they were losing power until the autopilot's Low Power alarm sounded... On an obviously 'Systems Heavy" boat like that, with 4 people aboard and no means of battery charging other than the genset, or engines, that struck me as a lack of diligence re monitoring the status of power aboard... When Charlie writes "On relieving Hank at 0430 hrs early Sunday morning, he informed me we now had no electrical power.", it practically sounds like an afterthought, something merely mentioned in passing...

No means of recharging the satphone, I think that ultimately posed a far greater risk to them than the rudder situation...

Too bad they didn't have a Dock & Go system, perhaps they could have made it back to the coast going sideways... (grin)

best regards,

Jon