LongPac Autopilot issues

I had autopilot problems the whole time...

The first day Nick worked great and I could do a couple of sail changes under his watch. I didn't sleep as I was in a heavy traffic passage, with very low wind, fog, no visibility and not past the Farallones Islands yet.

That evening, Nick started to complain about connectivity issues and

The wind was very light at night, but not completely dead, by actively trimming the main and the number 1, Elies was managing 3 to 4 knots of boat speed, so not so bad. I could not use 'Ray' at night because of the power consumption, I nearly used up all the power I had as I had to have the GPS+AIS on all night, calling ships every half hour or so

In the morning, the wind was between 5 to 10 for a while and 'Ray' managed to do a good job. It was eating up a lot of power though, even during the day, and particularly with 50% less UV due to the fog. It was depleting the batteries. By 9ish, the wind had increased and Ray was not up to the task anymore. It took its little mount with it trying to keep up with a compass course. So I put Ray aside and sailed without it.

I had tried the sheet-based system but it would take me 10 to 15 min to set it up and then try it (by sitting in the cockpit just not driving) but the conditions would change too often for it to actually be able to work for more than 10 minutes...Maybe Elise is a little too sensitive for this kind of system.

Bungee worked great at wind speed below 18 knots and above 10 knots. There was enough wind to keep enough pressure in the sails and I could take a 2-hr nap under its watch. Unfortunately, above 18 knots, and even with a reef in the main, the boat required a little too much hand-holding for bungee to do a good job. Nick would have been able to handle these changes as it is built for that, but the bungee is too 'unchanging', so I had to take the helm again. Nick was OK for a few minutes at a time though, without making the boat round up or tack (that's how I realized I could not sleep any longer. I tried going below but would have to get back on deck every 15 minutes to a tacked boat and fix up the mess.

My most faithful autopilot - when the wind conditions were right, it did a great job, so very happy to have had the bungee!

When the night closed on on day 2, my autopilot situation was:

• no autopilot during the night (wind was too high for bungee to work)
• no autopilot downwind (sheet-based or bungee was quite incapable of doing this)
• no 'Ray' (wind was too much for it)
• no 'Nick' - I tried to fix it and pushed one wire back in, started instrument/pilot in different orders but couldn't get it to work and only made myself seasick in the process

The wind was between 25 to 30 knots. I had two reefs in the main and was considering moving to the storm jib. I would have to drive all night and I was running only on a couple of hours sleep.

The only way to get some sleep would then be to heave-to (and I did so to get one hour of sleep), however I was feeling way too guilty to do so because I would just be drifting when that would happen...I felt really uncompetitive...

The forecast indicated that I would be sailing in above 30 knots for the next day and night - which would be fine when not tired and safe if I could sleep even hove-to - the downwind would have to have me drive the entire time too because of the lack of self-steering mechanism.