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GEM - Mr. Toad's Wild Ride



Some of you may remember the amusement park ride listed above. It’s claim to fame was that it was IN THE DARK. Without any visual input any ride seems scary. A lurching CAT at nite has Mr. Toad beat by a mile :-) The last 24 hours has been difficult, motoring through squalls, a lumpy sea and wind directly from the SE. Our DTF has gone up and if you are following our plot you’ll think that we are drunk, insane or just stupid. We are trying to ease the pounding and lurching so folks will feel more comfortable. Our lasts WX suggested this would continue till Monday so we are doing this and trying to get to 65 N in case the trades do fill in. If they don’t we may have to do this all the way to finish :-((.

We have talked to Club Carp and Corsair and they seem to be doing the same. Lucky Strike passed astern last night heading almost due East. At least we have the bimini to shelter in, I don’t envy them.

More repairs yesterday, our topping lift was chafing through due to a piece of shockcord that tied the sail bag ends together and was behind the lift. Normally no problem but out here any contact can mean failure. It’s repaired now and won ’t repeat. 

Finally, our starboard bilge pump alarm kept going off an starting the pump in spite very little water in the bilge. At first we thought it was a rocker switch at the helm that works in parallel with it but after taking that apart it was ok. It was the switch itself. Once we cut it out, the alarms stopped :-). We had the same problem with port switch earlier this year. Will replace it when we get to Nanny Cay.

Last night we ate burgers and a mashup of potatoes, peas, onions. Jim, Jay and I were the carnivores and ate beef, Craig and Grant at the Veggie Burgers… Since the boat was lurching around we ate out of blue ‘dog’ bowls that my wife MEG found at Benny’s near our home in Bristol. We all thank you Meg.

Hoping to bet WX forecast, if you have any spare prayers or gifts to the gods, ask for the Trades to fill in soon.


GEM at sea.


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