Thursday, 2nd September 2010
01.00hrs Another beautiful night at sea.
Distance travelled................................... 88n miles
Wind .................................................... 14 / 16 knots ENE
Sea....................................................... Moderate
We rolled out the sails and shut down the engine as the wind was getting stronger, and we need to reserve fuel. A full tank of desiel would take us about 700 miles, and the total distance here is approx 930miles as the crow flies.
One big tanker passed us during the night, and we had plenty of lightning too, but, it was away in the distance. T.G.
It was humid, so humid around these parts, that wiping the bottom would bring out pesperation on the brow and we are in their cool dry season. Do you know, that during their wet season, it can drop 900mm of rain in 3/4 hours and they have the 2nd highest level of Lightning in the world, they can get up to 30,000 lightning hits per day... It must never get dark during a storm at night. Wow! We know a few people we could send here to be fried (mind you, they would probably do the same to us).
07.00hrs We had lots of passing showers, the wind increasing to 25 knots in each case. Its great to have the radar back again, as we can track these showers and avoid them if necessary.
08.00hrs We have a nice breeze of 16/18 knots NNE so we put up the KITE and away we went at 8.5 knots. Just magic sailing. We are sailing WNW, (277 T) so the wind angle is good for us.
12.00hrs Distance travelled.........................154 n miles (slow going for us). Weather, beautiful and a flat sea. The yachts behind vanished out of sight quickly. The wind eased back to 12/14 knots, but the Kite kept pulling us along nicely. The humidity now was huge, and we were all perspiring like pigs.You know what its like, have a shower, and you are wetter after the shower than before, phew! Suffocating stuff.
14 00hrs As the fridge and freezer had basically stopped working because the water pump for cooling the condensors had stopped. It would go again every time we gave it some brute engineering, like a flake of the hammer, but that only seemed to work for a while. So we decided to take the pump apart and have a look. When we opened it up, it was full of grime, slime, and barnacles, so we used our 80% vinigar to kill off these visitors and then cleaned up the rest of the pump (the magnets seemed a bit worn). We put it all back together again and wow, it all worked perfectly. So the fridge and freezer are back in buisness (must get a spare pump).
18.00hrs Distance travelled .........................188n miles, and the fridge & freezer are still working.
Wind.............................................10 knots, ENE/NE
Temperature in the cabin.................36 degrees C
Humidity ........................................WOW
18.30hrs The wind dropped to 4/5 knots, not enough to keep the KITE filled, so we took it down and motored as did some of the following yachts that have come right up behind us.
Dinner :- Aileen cooked a minced beef curry with creamed potatoes. Yum, yum,
The night air was slightly cooler, but the humidity was stiffling.
Night watches :- 10.00hrs / 01.00hrs ...................................Aileen
01.00hrs / 04.00hrs...................................Stephen
04.oohrs / 07.00hrs....................................Neill
That's all for today.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )