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Starblazer - 27/04/2016 - Rapidly becoming very frustrated!



First of all, I need to add three minor points to my previous blog. We were not the last World ARC boat to leave Rodney Bay; Exody expected to leave on Saturday afternoon, heading for Les Saintes off the south coast of Guadaloupe. On the way to Martinique John added a hook and wire leader to a new lure, dropped it in and within 10 minutes had a bite! He landed a beautiful 3.5 kg Mahi Mahi. I already had meat in the fridge which needed eating so we had Ceviche as a starter and the rest of the fillets went in the freezer. On the approach to Ste Anne the wind died so we started the engine. It quickly overheated so engine off, drift in roughly the right direction while John checks the fresh water reservoir. Sure enough, it was empty so once he refilled it we made our way to the anchorage.

Tuesday afternoon we started the engine, pulled up the anchor, motored into deeper water, turned head to wind to pull up the mainsail then turned the engine off to sail along the south coast of Martinique. We didn't turn as soon as we reached the southwest corner to give us more distance from the land though as the wind shadow can stretch a long way. We sailed all evening until, level with St Pierre in the northwest, the wind was completely blocked by Mount Pele which destroyed St Pierre in about 1905 when it erupted. At this point the frustration level began to mount! Earlier in the evening John tried to run the generator to charge the batteries. It worked well the previous evening but this time it wouldn't run for more than about 30 seconds. In the end he started the main engine, only for the overheat alarm to go off about an hour later. With no wind and no engine we were drifting roughly southwards while steering and pointing about northwest.

At around midnight John had a look at the engine. The suspect fresh water still had a full reservoir, the salt water pump still pumped water through but it did need some revs to encourage it. We rolled away the limp Genoa and started motoring. Within about 5 minutes John smelt something, a quick inspection showed that the engine room was full of steam. He found one loose joint but couldn't identify any leakage. Engine back on, we started making progress but the warning lights started flashing and the temperature was rising quite quickly so it was engine off again! By this time we had cleared the northern tip of the island and the wind slowly built until we were racing along at nearly 7 knots in 18 knots of apparent wind just forward of the beam. John finally went off watch at 0200, that's usually when I go off watch!

Now we have to wait to see what the morning brings. I can see the lights of Dominica and, at our current speed, we should pass Guadaloupe within 10-11 hours. Let us hope we are far enough offshore to keep at least enough wind to sail by, even if it is at a more pedestrian speed.


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