4:47 pm Daily Log
Holy S%!#!!!! We lost steering!! We were in the ocean dragging the nets in a stiff breeze with a building swell on a lee shore and we f*&%$#g lost our ability to steer the boat. This was bad. We really could have capsized or gone aground if anything would have not gone our way after we lost steering. What happened was the distribution box in the stern that handles the hydraulic lines to control the rudder failed on us…it leaked a lot of the hydraulic fluids into the bildge and was NOT fixable on the ocean. We hauled the nets in quickly and headed for the hill…I don’t know how he did it, but Richie managed to pilot us in the inlet and almost back to the dock before we had to take a tow. One more system to repair.