9am -
We’re sailing and making good time, but the seas have built and are really rolling the boat around and throwing things that aren’t lashed down around with a vengeance – including your body if you aren’t hanging on. We only lost one coffee cup today, so that’s still a victory in my mind. These are the days that you just want to get through.
We broke the 1600NM to go barrier, and will break 1500 before sunrise tomorrow. Every 100NM closer is cause for a little celebration.
12pm Update
We poled out the genoa to sail wing on wing now which has really settled the boat down. It’s still rolling a bit, but much calmer. We’re sailing at 7-8 knots in 20-25 knot winds from the east. Swells are 6-9 feet. They are gentle, but look big as they rise up beside and behind the boat. We’ve continued to sail like this all day long and probably will through the night.
We’re still having issues with the generator stopping unexpectedly, and we still think it is a fuel issue – clogged line? air in the line? It’s hard to troubleshoot when you’re on the floor leaning into the engine room and the boat is tossing you around like you are in a washing machine.
Speaking of washing machines, I’m really missing ours right about now. The dirty clothes and towels are starting to pile up, and there’s no great place to store them. I was hoping to use our washer during the crossing, but that’s a no go without the generator. In a boat, so many systems depend on each other – the generator for 220V power to run certain things like the washer and air conditioner, and also to charge the batteries that run the water maker, autopilot, radar, navigation lights, and numerous other things. We still can run the engine to charge the batteries, so anything that runs on DC power can still be used. Of course, we have no internet to research how to deal with problems that arise. One of my daughters has been sweet enough to be my google search engine when I email her with an issue. Thanks, Cath! But, we have redundancy on things that are critical to make a safe crossing. The washer, however, is not one of the redundant items!