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Starblazer - Starblazer - 2 December - The first week at sea.



We have now been at sea for seven and a half days so I think a brief review is in order.

Statistics: This is a yacht but we have motored for about 50 hours because we can’t sail in next to no wind. We have been surprised at the speeds we have managed in 7 or 8 knots but at 5 or less we drift. We have covered a  distance of 909 miles but only about 570 were towards St Lucia. Within the next 24 hours we hope to find the trade winds and set a direct course.

Weather: We have had a bit of nearly everything; wind, no wind, showers, rain, cool overcast days, warm bright sunny ones, cold nights, pleasantly warm nights (tonight), rough seas, flat calm. We have been lucky to avoid
the squalls so far.

Problems: There have been a few we have yet to resolve. The jib diving overboard was not too much of a problem. It was safely recovered, undamaged, and is now rolled up and tied down on the aft deck. One knock on effect is that the block installed at the top of the genoa for the jib halyard can swing free when rolling the sail in and out and has once managed to get wrapped up with a spinnaker halyard. I was easing out the furling line when it stuck, fortunately John wasn’t winching the sheet. We quickly rolled it away, moved the halyards back from the mast and tried again, slowly and successfully. John will have to check out the top of the forestay for any damage in St Lucia. The genoa has a sacrificial strip which protects the edge of the sail from UV when it is rolled away. A bit
of this has torn near the top but I think the underlying sail is OK. We are keeping an eye on it, I’ll repair it in St Lucia.

The other two problems are possibly much more expensive to fix though John is hopeful of effecting repairs at sea when the engine is cold, because he has to lay over it, and the seas are smoothish. The watermaker lift pump  has now started tripping out immediately instead of after 90 minutes of continual running. There is no point trying to repair this unless he can sort out the problem with the generator cooling water, or rather lack of. 

We have plenty of water on board and we are being careful, so the pile of dirty clothes is growing! We can use the engine in neutral to top up the batteries when we are sailing, though hopefully the solar panels will do a good job if the sun shines.

Sunday was a lovely, warm day and we spotted the northern most island of the Cape Verdes on the horizon. The next land we spot should be St Lucia. We are still hopeful of beating our crossing time of 4 years ago, we just need some steady winds to cover the remaining 2,000 miles in 12 or 13 days!

Sunday roast was boned leg of lamb stuffed with pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes and apricots, coated with a honey and mustard marinade served with roast potatoes and French beans.

Joyce


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