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Starblazer - 06/03/2014 – Sailing at last!



We have several reasons to celebrate, not major ones requiring Champagne,
just minor ones earning us steak and chips for dinner with a glass of red
wine!

Less than two and a half hours after I wrote yesterday’s log the wind
increased to 8 knots and we turned off the engine. 8 knots is barely enough
to drive Starblazer but its direction is the all important factor. With the
wind on the beam we slowly built up speed and have been sailing ever since,
the highest wind being 11 knots, and we have averaged a bit over 5.5 knots
though not all in the right direction. We are still heading further south
than the rhum line in an attempt to find the trade winds and a favourable
current, then we should really accelerate. The current, while slowing us
down a bit, is helpfully pushing us up towards the rhum line while the boat
is pointing about 20 degrees further south.

My second attempt at yoghurt seems to have worked this time, the test will
come when I dish it up this evening. It took 10 hours to set which is a
little slower than the booklet suggested given the high temperature here.
Yesterday’s ‘yogurt’ became cottage cheese by lunchtime, which made an
interesting addition to a salad lunch.

We have stayed dry since the early hours of yesterday morning without the
aid of radar or playing dodgems, the squall activity appeared to be a bit
further north according to one boat on the morning radio net.

As you can see, they are really very minor reasons to celebrate!

One thing I have forgotten to write about was the leg prize giving last
Thursday. As we were not in the Las Perlas we did not start (DNS) and didn’t
know what the photo competition was we were not in the competition. We did
receive a lovely bottle of rum and a pack of picturesque playing cards for
our stunning second place in our class in the first leg from St Lucia to San
Blas Islands, or it might have been for third place overall in monohulls,
not quite sure which but we are very proud. With so little wind, this leg
appears to show just why we are the slowest boat on handicap in the fleet.
Roll on the Trades.

We did get one piece of bad news yesterday. John phoned the helpful service
manager at Fischer Panda in the UK to discuss the new problem of seawater in
the oil. The worrying diagnosis is either a cracked cylinder head or
cylinder, caused by overheating, especially if it was uneven. We know the
water channels were completely blocked on one side, a little less so on the
other, and that the ‘engine overheat’ light came on when it cut out. We can
run it cautiously, carefully checking the quality and quantity of oil,
changing it at regular intervals. So far the oil has been discoloured but
not emulsified so there wasn’t much water in it. Watch this space. Without
the generator we have no way of running the watermaker and we are unlikely
to sort out the generator properly before New Zealand. Water quality in the
islands is not good…..

Never mind, we are fit and well and happy to be sailing across the Pacific.

Joyce




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