Frank Weismantel of Elverta, CA asks:

I've checked in on the ATW voyage every day since you started. I get the sense that the crew was unable to pick up the gyro in Djibouti and Jeff is out there without Naiads, only Paravanes. The April 4 report seems to back that up. Is that the case? Would carrying a spare make sense or are they generally too reliable and expensive to stock onboard? Or....were the beam seas so severe as to call for both active and passive stabilizers to make things comfortable? Either way, gale blown beam seas and a reasonable comfortable ride is pretty impressive.

Jim Leishman responds:

The Naiads were only out of operation as we entered Salalah, Oman and then on the passage from Salalah to Djibouti. We did receive the new Gyro in Djibouti and the system has been working perfectly ever since.

The Gyro is a component of the Naiads which we have never seen fail and we did not have a spare part. The old Gyro had some kind of a bearing problem which restricted its ability to spin without resistance. The new Gyro was installed easily. We just removed two hydraulic lines and four bolts. The removal and reinstallation took about 20 minutes.

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