Valent - In Grenada

Valent eventually finished their Atlantic crossing around day break on Monday. We took a couple of hours longer crossing the finish line than expected as the wind dropped to zero when we were 0.1nm from the line and due to a possibly misguided sense of pride we wished to sail the whole trip, i.e. not use the engine at all for propulsion. Having thought that we had crossed the imaginary line a few times, finally the tracker agreed with us and we motored in. A very excited welcome committee with banner we’re waiting to greet us. Most of the crew had been up since 01:30, so possibly we weren’t the best company. However a quick rum punch, few beers and a bacon&egg sarnie (using the last of the good bacon from the UK) revived spirits. The crossing itself was fairly uneventful. The. read more...

Valent - Less than 500 to go

Yesterday noon we got a proper squall come through us. Up until that point we had been making excellent progress but the passing of the squall seemed to suck all the energy from the wind. A frustrating afternoon followed with the wind not filling in again until after dark. Since then progress has been good and we look on to arrive am on 4 Dec. In the meantime the sextant is getting well used. Last nights star sight gave a sensible position about 4 miles from the GPS. All of our fresh fruit is now used up with the final bananas making a Caribbean Banana Loaf and a breakfast of Banana Pancakes. Thanks to Guillemette (Saltair) for sharing this amazingly simple and delicious recipe. Just beat 1 egg and a mashed banana together, fry in butter and hey presto culinary magic follows. We added. read more...

Valent - A Sail Past

Another steady day of progress on Valent. Today’s highlight depends on your perspective. For some it was the banana loaf (definitely getting the hang of cup measures), for others it was getting back into the fish and landing a nice Amberjack, but the cherry on the cake for me was seeing Berenice Cube up close and personal. Berenice Cube is the leading boat in ARC and about twice the size of Valent. She is a Swan 90 and was sailing at more than double our speed. In full race mode, 7 crew on deck she made a fine sight. A very cordial conversation on the VHF followed.image0. read more...

Valent - Gentastic

After a steady night of progress interrupted by the low battery alarm, work resumed on fixing the generator. Today in the absence of other ideas I decided to check the impeller. The impeller came out and looked exactly as I would expect a recently installed brand new one to look like. So not a faulty impeller. The impeller was lubricated and refitted. I then checked all the relay units, refitting the solenoid and starter units and changed the fuel pump relay as it looked less than perfect. After redoing the air in take hose and having verified that oil and coolant levels were as expected we restarted the generator. 1 1/2 hours in and it is still running smoothly, not hunting and delivering 1.5kw plus to the batteries. Fingers crossed the problem was just a faulty relay unit. On a roll we. read more...

Valent - Less than a 1000 to go

A couple of days of contrasting activities. Yesterday was quite relaxed making good progress West. We had fun with the sextant and I surpassed expectations with my noon sight achieving a latitude only 0.6nm from the GPS. The evening sun was not quite so good.Learning:it is not a good idea to try and take a sun sight when the sail obscures the sun and horizon.We also celebrated half way with showers on the aft deck. During our routine of running the generator and charging batteries during the dog watch period the generator packed up. A blocked sea water intake was suspected and cleared. The genny then ran again for a bit before packing up. Today has been about trying to fix the genny. We have changed both the fuel filter, air filter and done the spacing on the exhaust valve. But while the. read more...