Wednesday 10th December
2014
....only 2 more big sleeps and we
should be there! However, at the moment we are ‘bobbing’ again; around 10 knots
of wind and a boat speed of between 4-5 knots. The wind is just north of east and we
are on a heading of about 225 (SW), trying to keep the boat moving by sailing
150 off the wind under poled out genoa and main. It has become unbearably humid,
with interludes of colder rain showers which are very refreshing.
Yesterday PM we decided as the sea
was relatively calm, we’d tackle the broken forward heads (WC). By a process of elimination, we deduced
that the problem was a blocked pipe between the WC and the holding tank. A
relatively easy problem to fix you would have thought. Without going into too
much detail (!) between a coat hanger and a shower hose we managed to unblock
the pipe after 4 sweaty hours up to our wotsits in ****! The biggest problem was
that the blocked pipe was just a little longer than any of the rodding
implements we had. We tried every trick in the book including the dinghy pump to
pressurise the system and clear the blockage. The problem was largely due to a
build up of lime scale in the pipe and a reducer which restricts the inlet into
the tank from a reasonable 30mm to just under 20mm. Happy that the WC was now
working, we finally got to bed late after a quick canned meal (chilli con carne
with rice) which unfortunately resembled the stuff we’d been shovelling!
Strangely our appetites were somewhat subdued!
We struck another culinary high for
lunch today; tinned corned beef! It’s been a while and it will be a while longer
before I try it again. As soon as George opened the can, it started oozing out
and he had to momentarily stick it in the freezer simply so it could be
sliced. Once it was in a freshly (part) baked roll with mayonnaise, tomato and
cucumber it was surprisingly passable though George had to sell it for seconds;
never usually a problem!
We are now preparing for our St
Lucia arrival by reviewing our food stocks and sorting out mosquito netting for
all hatches and port holes after reports of a mosquito borne virus with an
unpronounceable name.