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Starblazer - 16/03.14 – Where’s the sunshine?



Yes, I know too much sun is bad for you and that we spend the vast majority
of the time in the cockpit shaded by the bimini, however yesterday it barely
put in an appearance. The problem with no sunshine is no free energy via
the solar panels. On a sunny day they have more than kept up with our
daytime demands and we have only needed to run the engine to charge the
batteries for an hour or two. Yesterday they needed three hours of charging
in the afternoon and another three hours overnight. Apart from the welcome
supply of hot water there is a downside, the noise and the cost of diesel.
We still have almost ¼ tank left plus another ¼ tank in cans so we’ll be
fine on that score.

We have decided the best solution to our generator problems is to replace
the engine, hopefully the Fischer Panda agent in New Zealand can organise
the delivery of one from Europe to Tahiti before we leave French Polynesia.
On Monday we will call him on the Satphone to pay for the unit. We have
decided against replacing the high pressure pump on the watermaker as the
cost was not far short of a new 12 volt unit from a different manufacturer.

On the subject of water, since the worrying discovery that one tank appeared
to have emptied itself in the bilge we have used only ¼ tank and we have ½
tank left so we should be fine. Unfortunately the laundry bag is full to
overflowing.

You can tell I’m bored when I willingly spend hours below in 30o heat, and
that’s before lighting the oven, voluntarily cooking. Yesterday’s lunch was
pizza, more akin to unleavened bread because the dough mix was old and it
didn’t rise, using the last of the fermenting salsa heated up with extra
tomato puree and sugar as the topping, finished off with slices of one odd,
cooked, Spicy Bratwurst from the fridge, green pepper strips, a sliced
tomato and grated cheese. It actually tasted very good. For dinner we had
Smoked Pork chops with apple sauce, mashed potato, carrots and cabbage
though no dessert.

Yesterday’s noon run was an improvement, 144 nM in the right direction
though some of our effort is wasted because we had also made 15 miles in the
wrong direction. Why won’t the wind do the decent thing and veer to the
south east instead of backing to the east and east north east?

Joyce



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