Fleet-wise,we’ve seen e-mails,
only partially tongue-in-cheek, offering to barter fresh water and fresh Tuna
filets for diesel fuel.
You may have heard that in the
225-boat main ARC, a German family of 4, plus 1-crew, had to abandon its 39’
boat, Noah, because of water entering from an unknown source – yes it
sank ~6-hrs later. Three ARC boats plus a Rescue boat were on the scene
within an hour, which is a distinct advantage of joining a WCC rally.
Nevertheless, I am sure that all of us skippers reviewed our within-arms-reach
(hopefully) laminated Seacock and Through Hull Position cards – in
fact, we just closed a few of our ancillary seacocks that we virtually never
use. Unconditional has 29-underwater thru-holes in its hull. Generator,
washing machines, HVAC, watermakers, scubbers, heads, etc all use multiple hull
through holes.
Yesterday, an ARC+ boat
vertically tore its in-mast mainsail and is proceeding an estimated 14-days more
to St Lucia with [ed: ‘only’] 50-liters of ‘spare’ water, and 100-liters of fuel
- yuck. We are fortunate to have have 37% of our diesel remaining, and our fuel
plan keeps 100-liters of diesel in total reserve, even if we have to motor
24-hrs. Additionally, we have dual headsails for this Leg #2 downwind run, and
we have our 2009 mainsail as spare in the rear lazarette.
Another ARC+ boat fouled its
prop part-way out, and we are told that it has been cleared with assistance from
another ARC+ boat - yeah.
Finally, yet another ARC+
boat had an overheat warning alarm
from its 4kw Panda generator, and again a different ARC boat determined that it
was a generically-faulty gate valve sensor; so the Panda is up & running
again.
Our recent
Unconditional malfunctions/issues include a Lewmar mainsheet Traveller
Upstand Cup, which allowed the end of the boom to be essentially free-swing.
Swinging did NOT occur because we were running using a preventer line and it
wasn’t under heavy load, therefore we boat-hooked the loose boom line and
re-secured the mainsheet block back to the traveller. using a shackle This
happened during daylight with all hands on deck – nice.
Of more concern is the boat’s
freshwater maker. The 1,500 psi salt water line from the massive high pressure
pump became abraded by wear while touching a bracket. This allowed a few gallons
of water into the boat in only 15-seconds or so. I shut the watermaker down,
taped the hose multiple times and braced it with four end to end cable clamps.
Turning it back on, salt water popped through in a second – impressive. Plan B
was encasing the area with a a split additional hose with similar clamps. That
solution worked fine for 45-seconds, until the 1,500psi found partial freedom. A
crew member saw that and immediately shut the watermaker main power without
relieving pressure. Now, just powering the watermaker control panel causes the
entire boat’s, primary 220Vac 32-amp breaker to instantly trip. I say
‘instantly’ because the watermaker’s 20-amp breaker does NOT trip. I could rip
the watermaker circuitry apart, however by switching the toilets to salt water
feed, we have sufficient fresh water for the journey, so why chance making it
potentially ‘un-repairable’. Alternately, if we run out of drinking water, we
have cases of ‘ships store’ wine aboard, and then who of us will care if we ever
make St Lucia – joking!
Speaking of wine, the Admiral
(Sara) elected that we would NOT to have wine with our ‘Thanksgiving meal’ – oh
well... On the flip side, yesterday Nick Farina used a deck-landed flying fish
as a lure to land a 12-lb, 1-meter, mahi-mahi – a triumph! The last two days
we’ve had mahi-mahi prepared six different ways – all excellent! Of course, we
still can’t compete with S/V Venture’s 66-lb wahoo, that Nigel’s son
caught.
While 95% of the time, no
boats are within our horizon vision, we did speak to a Dutch boat and a Canadian
ARC+ boat that crossed our path within a mile or so. It is impressive the
quality of individuals that make this trip. It is certainly not for the faint at
heart, and one needs to attain a moderate amount of success to afford the
venture.
With 10-19-knots from due East
tonight, we are smartly sailing 6-8-knots along a great-circle directly towards
St Lucia. We remain roughly in the top 1/3 of the fleet and our class. All is
good; moral is high, and I even heard Sara wish for more wind yesterday. We have
that wind now (more than predicted), however I should have recorded her
wish!
Tom
Hughes