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Exody - Day 2 - Breeze, Baleines and Breakages



Having motored on and off throughout the light winds of the night, morning brought great trade wind conditions for a good sail in very nearly the right direction. There were two other yachts within sight and we realised at the first radio net this morning how relatively west we were - the wind and a good proportion of the fleet reporting in were further east- and maybe still are as we are motoring once again this evening to keep up the pace - 3.9 knots just wont cut it!

Marian spotted a pair of spouting whales at extremely close quarters plus a large area of brown water adjacent - glad we didn't have the watermaker on!

It's been a day of gear failure- our chartplotter decided we were doing up to 19 knots and heading in multiple directions - drawing a track on the screen which after a few hours resembled an ECG plot! Easily fixed with a spare GPS aerial/sender. Then the genoa furler jammed - this has now happened twice in a month and even after dropping the genoa to restow the line , the fault repeated and so the genoa, dropped for a second time is now piled on the deck for the night with the small jib rigged to the inner stay for when the wind comes back. The topping lift went walkabout (last used to hoist the Rigging Inspector up the mast in Las Palmas) - I was fortunate to be able to capture it for reattachment. Finally at nightfall I noticed a deck bimini fixing was broken probably a consequence of the topping lift failure and. From the evening radio net we realise we are not alone in facing such gear challenges but with over 650 miles to port we hope to be able to get our main downwind sail back into commission sooner rather than later.

Our two crew are settling in and beginning to show interest in food - it is said that the first two days 'at sea' are the worst so we are hoping for a better day tomorrow for them - and for us on the gear front. For now we are motoring over a flat starlit sea awaiting the moonrise and for the first time on the trip able to instigate a four person watch system.

Peter (Skipper)



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