Position 23:05.20N 019:42.05W
Midnight comes, and the princess goes home – in this case the princess is
the wind. Steadily reduced, and at 03.00 the engine came on, and stayed on
until 09.25.
During the Night Toby and Nadine saw a pod of pygmy dolphins – hopefully
they will return.
At least the sea is calm, and the sun is shining, and we are now making 5.2
Kn in 8 knots of breeze.
All this made me philosophizel about the use of scarce resources:
diesel, water, electricity, gas and food. The latter two should not
become scarce (I hope); expected to use one, maybe one and a half gas
bottles on the crossing. Boat comes with two, on reflection I bought a
spare, and then at the last minute, after hearing of the culinary delights
promised us by Nadine and Andre, bought another. Food is also not an
issue, and should not be providing we arrive somewhere near the anticipated
date. But the other 3 are real issues, and we are doing some gentle
balancing.
While there is wind we have no issue, the hydrogenerator produces
electricity in abundance to run the watermaker as needed, and the engine is not
needed. But with limited wind it is more complicated. Running the
engine at 1500 rpm is giving us 4.8 Kn, and at this speed, according to the
charts, we have fuel for in excess of 80 hours. The engine is also
producing electricity in abundance, but we cannot run the watermaker, as it uses
the same water intake as the engine, and Yanmar sucks it away from
Katadyn. But running the engine gives us hot water, so showers and washing
become desirable indulgences. So we then need just enough wind to give us
a steady boat, so we can shut off the engine, and run the watermaker or a few
hours, then recharge batteries with the engine, and the run the watermaker
again. So that’s what we are doing. WAIT – Nadine tels me we are up
to 6 knots – back to the hydrogenerator!