Puddle Jumper - Day 11 - 8th Dec 2012 - I think?!

During the clear starlight night I found two more flying fish landed at my feet. They are beautiful powerful little creatures which take a bit of holding to be able to throw them back in again. In the day they glide about a foot above the surface for up to about 100 metres singly and in small shoals which is fascinating to watch.

 

After a very still 24 hr. period we started to sail again around 7 am PLT (Puddlejumper Local Time) which is currently 3 hrs before  GMT (aka UT...). By 9:00 we were on with working out a rig to fly the Parasail on Starboard tack for the first time. By the time we had tried one sheeting arrangement and changed it for another an hour had passed and we were well ready for the bacon butties we had been promised for breakfast..... after the usual cereal, POJ and Tea. We sailed fast in steady winds and bright sunshine with just the Parasail until 3 pm when the weather and heavy cloud approaching from the NE caused us to go back to standard sails. A good call as we were hit by 30 Knot gusts in squalls within half an hour...

 

Todays issues are the fact that our spinnaker halyard is showing fray which looks as if we need a trip up the mast to investigate the problem sooner rather than later. Also the generator has developed a cooling system fault and as we don’t have a trained Ferret with a toolkit on the crew who can change the raw water pump impellor and don’t fancy removing loads of panels off the back of the boat in a following sea we have decided to manage with what we can generate with our main engine for the rest of the trip so our ability to use diesel to produce water is reduced and we have turned off our electric winches. Therefore hard grinding and no showers are once again order of the day!

 

We saw a large freighter late this afternoon passing in the then grey rain and cloud in the distance at a range of about 4 miles.

 

We have now got less than 800 Nm left to Rodney Bay and conversation is turning to our expected arrival in 4/5 days time if the weather forecast proves correct. All are well and looking forward to seeing land again after what will have been around two weeks.

 

Love to all

 

William S Mc