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Blue Dolphin - Day 4 - New Crew



2 new crew  joined the team to provide support:

 

George – The autopilot

Danny – The Dan Buoy

 

Following a troubled night worrying about the water maker Mike and Carol set to work early trying to find out why it wouldn’t work.  It had been fine in Las Palmas.   Rhey checked all the pipe work and valves were in the right position, reset the system and went through start up again – but no joy.  Carol tried to phone – yes phone- the watermaker support but only got an answer machine – grrrr.   Carol called on the VHF for any support that other ARC boats may be able to give and despite efforts by ….. and …. there was no luck.   Carol had joined Kathy and Sally on deck for a cup of tea and a chat about water rationing when a yell and a smiling face appeared from below – Mike had fixed the problem.  Apparently there was a screw loose.  Once again Mike and his engineering prowess had saved the day.

 

Kathy decided to take a reading from the sextant.  After lots of fiddling with screws and adjusting the little windows she then asked ‘what time is noon?’.  The crew looked worried.   She explained that she needed to know the time of noon exactly where we were.  The crew were more hopeful.  Eventually, after what looked like degree level calculus, Kathy got a fix.  It was only 20 miles out which the crew found impressive.  Although everyone agreed that they would stick to the GPS otherwise they could end up in Brazil.

 

The task of the day was to practice Man Overboard procedures.    Kathy and Sally were mustered in the cockpit and Skipper explained how it would work.   Danny was thrown overboard and Carol proceeded to make the manoeuvre.   The plan being that having turned up into the wind, Kathy would hook him out  at the shrouds.   What happened was Carol ran over the top of poor Danny and when he popped out from under the boat Kathy proceeded to stab him several times with the boat hook.  Finally Sally hoiked him out by the scruff of his flag, whereupon he proceeded to pee all over her shoes!   More practice needed tomorrow.

 

Mike was absent from this task as he had another worrying problem.    The Mastervolt system seems to be charging only 3 of the 5 batteries  leaving us short of power.   Why????

 

Carol’s  cook day turned out to be a triumph, thanks to her secret weapon – the Cobb Oven.   A new piece of kit to Kathy and Sally, the Cobb Oven is a barbeque with a difference.   Placed on deck Carol put a whole chicken in, put the lid on and went down below.  2 hours later the lid was removed to reveal a perfectly roasted chicken.  Carol served it with roasted potatoes, vegetables and gravy.  She is still in the game!

 

BS.

 

 



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