Triple D of Chidham - even the best laid plans....

We're feeling a little down-hearted today as the decision was taken this
morning to divert to the Cape Verdes. Here's why....
Yesterday we turned the engine on for a short while to scare away some
whales that were almost underneath our boat. However, we quickly noticed an
extremely strong smell of burning, and turned the engine off. When we opened
the hatch to the engine, smoke filled the cabin. We worked on it over the
course of the day and soon decided that this could be caused by fact that we
had been running the engine at low revs overnight to save fuel. A diesel
engine doesn't like this! Anyway eventually the residue produced by running
it at low revs seemed to have burned off, and last night and today we were
able to run the engine with no immediate problems.
However, whilst exploring the engine compartments and the bilges, we found
quite a lot of water. Mum and I set to bailing and then tracing the water.
Mum thinks it may be coming from the shower outlet in her bathroom. It could
not be an outside leak, and just have come from showering in those heads but
we're not entirely sure at the moment.
The engine is still running extremely hot, much hotter than usual, and we
think this may have caused our generator to break as it won't operate when
the engine is above a certain temperature. Whatever the cause, our generator
is not working, meaning we can't charge our batteries very well, and can't
charge the laptop at all! We don't want to risk running out of battery
completely, or continuing to cross the Atlantic with an engine we don't
really trust! This is all very upsetting as we had our engine serviced in
Gran Canaria just about a month ago, and had been checking the bilges for
leaks every day before we left.
So off we go to the Cape Verdes! Luckily, the forecast is for very little
wind for the next few days. With our engine on (running at high revs!) we
should make it to Mindelo in the Cape Verdes some time on Sunday. A quick
turnaround may hopefully mean that we don't lose out very much and can
continue our crossing with the Arc rally as we have been enjoying a lot! It
would be sad to be way behind the fleet and unable to be in radio contact
with anyone.

So that's the news.... not exactly what we'd planned but these things
happen, and we have been having a lovely time so far!
Triple D standing by...