12 March 2011
The squalls finally died away by late evening and we settled down for a relaxing night's sailing. We put Voyageur on a more westerly course so that the wind was abaft the beam. As soon as it was light enough to see I got David up to pole out the genoa so we could head more downwind. The wind remained steady so we are able to keep sailing. Now we are in deep water, we have the left the local fishing boats who hover around the fifty metre contour, in our wake, and unlike the previous night when we found ourselves in the midst of a busy shipping route, we have not now seen a single vessel since yesterday afternoon.
Our old problem with the bow thruster seal has returned. David last changed it during haul out in French Polynesia and with hindsight should have done it again in South Africa. At dawn I could hear water sloshing around under the floor opposite the forward heads. It had been bone dry when we checked it in Recife. All the pounding to windward had been the culprit. This time however there was no panic, only mild alarm until we had established that that was indeed the problem. But it is disconcerting nevertheless to find sea water inside the boat when you have such a long way to go. Anyway we baled it all out and will now have to keep checking at regular intervals. We have now lost VHF radio contact with A Lady since last night but the boys have resumed their informal SSB net after the 9am and 6pm roll call and midday.
A Black Noddy was this morning's first visitor and stayed just long enough to preen his feathers and for me to take a picture. During the entire 2200nm passage we are never more than a couple of hundred miles from land so I hope that birds to the boat will be a regular occurrence, the feathered variety of course! The start of our third day at sea we can at last relax a little and settle down into serious passage making mode......
Susan Mackay