More motoring. But we will get wind tonight. The boats north of us already have it and it’s heading our way. It will be a bit into wind but for sure better than motoring. With a bit of luck we should then have wind for several days. Good times ahead.
All else is quiet on board. Unfortunately last night the water maker pump overheated and cut out. It’s still working a little but making a lot less water than normal and cutting out after and hour or so. It’s either the pump motor or a blockage in the intake. Either way I can’t fix it till we stop motoring as I have to sit on the engine to access it. Luckily we still have about 500l of water in the tanks and a hand water maker as an emergency. Hence no stress. Just no more showers for a while.
We put the rest of the cans of diesel in this afternoon too. So all the cans are used up (160l) and the tank is almost full in the boat (395l). So we are ok for fuel despite all the motoring.
Picking a route has been a big challenge. When we set off there was no clear forecast so we just headed the great circle route. Last night and today the forecasts started to look more and more aligned, and hence can be relied on more. We have a little window of fairly favourable winds if we can keep making steady progress east. This was one big reason we motored most of the last day, to try and make sure we pickup these winds and can ride them as they more easy. First we get a NE from the bottom right of a high pressure system above us. As we move across it the wind should back to a N and even a NW and we then hook into the bottow of a low pressure system on the Azores. If we are lucky we can ride under this low pressure for a few days almost the whole way to the finish. It would continue the NW wind gradually going round to SW. So that’s the plan. We just have to keep moving east nicely and it should work. The first test is tonight when we meet the NE wind. How strong is it and can we make enough progress E within having to go to far S. check tomorrow to see how we did.