May 22/11 JST
Position: 21°17'N, 157°53'W (Honolulu)
Remaining distance to Yokohama finish: 13.4%
Suddenly things seem to be moving quite fast. We reported yesterday that Team Hawaii was waiting for the diagnosis on the all-important Raymarine autopilot and the aux generator used to supply AC power and charge the ship's batteries.
Today we learned that the autopilot was found by the maker in New Hampshire to be in working order, and had been returned for reinstallation. Now it is believed that an insitu recalibration may be all that is necessary after a careful reinstall by Jerry Zack, the original vendor.
Likewise, the genset, while definitely showing a lot of age, was fixed yesterday by Hal Rainwater, who was the vessel's main mechanic in her previous life as a Honolulu-based dive & commercial sailboat going back several decades. He determined that the voltage regulator was kaput, so he swapped it out for a working one.
So after a sea trial on Monday, a fuel top-up, a final prop cleaning and one-month provisioning, Saito-san looks ready to ask for clearance to depart from the Coast Guard. That may come as early as Wednesday.
More updates to come after the sea trial.
