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Starla - Log Day 19 - Shake Rattle and Roll



Hello Everyone,

Distance logged today - 187 nautical miles. Distance to date this trip - 2414 nautical miles. Remaining miles to St Lucia 730.

As you can see from the log, we bettered yesterdays best ever daily distance by one mile.

The wind has been 18-25 knots from the east. We are still sailing south east, below the direct course for St Lucia on port tack. At some point we will gybe on to starboard tack and make out way back up towards the direct route.

One small but important repair was carried out yesterday. The dingy outboard motor is clamped to a bracket, which is clamped to the hand rail of the boat. The bracket is a hard wood 25mm thick board, through bolted in two places on to the bracket that has tubular clamps to the handrail. One of the through bolts had come undone, meaning the outboard was hanging on the handrail, by one 8mm bolt!! The outboard weighs 37kg, is 10 horse power, and cost £2500. The bolt was quickly tightened up. Now you see, a small but important job, especially for my wallet. It seems that if no vibration protection is given to bolts, then, on an Atlantic crossing, they will come lose. We do have daily inspections of everything to try and find these sort of things, before they become a problem!

Colin had another one of his Galley dancing sessions as he cooked the dinner last night. He was cooking fish in the frying pan on the stove. He opened the cupboard door to get something out. We were hit by a wave on the stern quarter, knocking the boat sideways. Colin's hand, shot right inside the cupboard, the door was trying to shut on his arm, and the frying pan went flying off the stove. He caught it just in time, before it emptied its contents behind the stove. It wasn't funny at the time, but we were really laughing about it this morning.

A little rain in the night, the morning has brought the sunshine.

Regards,

Starla Crew
(written by Steven Crake)



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