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Starblazer - 13/01/2016 – Good news, bad news



A milestone passed us by yesterday morning, soon after 0100. We crossed the
longitude 004o 19’ E, the longitude of Mahon in Menorca, which was about as
far east as we ventured into the Mediterranean in 2013 on our way to join
the ARC then World ARC. We have, in fact, sailed the circumference of the
world though we won’t cross our tracks, or more precisely ‘wakes’ until we
arrive in St Lucia. Mahon has a latitude of 39o 52’ N compared with our
current position of 22o 16’ S, a distance of 3,720 nM, but the Med was a lot
warmer!

This is proving to be one of our faster passages however Tuesday’s Day’s Run
was the lowest of the trip, 147nM, i.e. an average speed just over 6 knots,
however we did spend about 30 minutes drifting while we sorted out a
problem.

Late yesterday afternoon the wind appeared a little warmer and the
temperature was higher, resulting in the blanket being unnecessary for the
first off-watch period and jackets not needed in the cockpit until after
midnight. It is still not T-shirt and shorts weather, even at midday, but
it is getting better.

Now the bad news. We were running the engine in neutral to charge the
batteries and generate a tank of hot water just before lunch yesterday when
there was a sudden, horrible, banging noise. John quickly stopped the
engine but the noise didn’t stop so we had to somehow slow down the boat.
We eventually rolled away the genoas, having cleared two halyard wraps, then
John dived into the engine compartment. As we both guessed, the prop shaft
had slipped and was no longer firmly attached to the gear box. We now have
the same problem as we had in Tonga. The nut holding the back of the
gearbox in place has come undone though this time without damaging the shaft
seal. John has managed to stop the shaft rotating by attaching mole grips
(wrenches) to the shaft and wedging them ahead of a mini bulkhead,
strengthened further by tying the propshaft flange forward to the engine.
At least we can sail again without the prop trying to rotate and making a
heck of a noise.

What’s to do? John can put it back together but would prefer calmer water,
this time he will attempt to centre punch the threads once he has fully
tightened the nut to prevent it happening again. We had the gearbox
repaired in Fiji. Sadly we cannot recommend the Volvo agents there: they
are grossly understaffed, their one engineer isn’t Volvo trained, it seemed
to us that routine jobs in Port Denerau took precedence over jobs in Vuda
Point because twice the engineer failed to turn up during our job to do
other things. We had been promised that once he started on our boat he
would be there every day until the job was completed. We had no choice but
to have the work done in Fiji but beware, most parts had to be ordered from
New Zealand, the agent’s stock was lamentable!

Enough of my moan. On a brighter note, the galley was quite productive
yesterday. The bread had started to go mouldy so I cooked Pasta Putanesca
for lunch, very tasty and quite filling. For dinner we had lamb kidneys
cooked with onions and mushrooms in a yogurt and dry sherry sauce served
with mashed potatoes and green beans. My next task this morning is to make
bread and have another stab at yogurt. I turned most of the last batch into
strawberry mousse as it hadn’t really thickened.

Joyce



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