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Unconditional - ARC+ Leg2, Days 6-11: 70% to St Lucia + fuel & H2O mgmt



  This WCC ARC+ blog covers the five at-sea days of Nov 22 – 27. Light Easterly winds continue, and in earlier 6-knot winds we lusted for those isolated squall cells to provide ‘reasonable’ wind. Every boat that I am aware of is on its own fuel management program, as we all depart with insufficient diesel to motor to our 2,100nm destination. Most of us skippers are faced with the adult equivalent of a child’s “Are we there yet, Daddy?” Well son, we are >70% there with a mere 600nm to go! “Will we be there tomorrow?” Not exactly; more like Friday, Dec 2nd, assuming continues moderate wind.
 
  Fleet-wise,we’ve seen e-mails, only partially tongue-in-cheek, offering to barter fresh water and fresh Tuna filets for diesel fuel.
  You may have heard that in the 225-boat main ARC, a German family of 4, plus 1-crew, had to abandon its 39’ boat, Noah, because of water entering from an unknown source – yes it sank ~6-hrs later. Three ARC boats  plus a Rescue boat were on the scene within an hour, which is a distinct advantage of joining a WCC rally. Nevertheless, I am sure that all of us skippers reviewed our within-arms-reach (hopefully) laminated Seacock and Through Hull Position cards – in fact, we just closed a few of our ancillary seacocks that we virtually never use. Unconditional has 29-underwater thru-holes in its hull. Generator, washing machines, HVAC, watermakers, scubbers, heads, etc all use multiple hull through holes.
  Yesterday, an ARC+ boat vertically tore its in-mast mainsail and is proceeding an estimated 14-days more to St Lucia with [ed: ‘only’] 50-liters of ‘spare’ water, and 100-liters of fuel - yuck. We are fortunate to have have 37% of our diesel remaining, and our fuel plan keeps 100-liters of diesel in total reserve, even if we have to motor 24-hrs. Additionally, we have dual headsails for this Leg #2 downwind run, and we have our 2009 mainsail as spare in the rear lazarette.
  Another ARC+ boat fouled its prop part-way out, and we are told that it has been cleared with assistance from another ARC+ boat - yeah.
  Finally, yet another ARC+ boat had an overheat warning alarm from its 4kw Panda generator, and again a different ARC boat determined that it was a generically-faulty gate valve sensor; so the Panda is up & running again.
 
  Our recent Unconditional malfunctions/issues include a Lewmar mainsheet Traveller Upstand Cup, which allowed the end of the boom to be essentially free-swing. Swinging did NOT occur because we were running using a preventer line and it wasn’t under heavy load, therefore we boat-hooked the loose boom line and re-secured the mainsheet block back to the traveller. using a shackle This happened during daylight with all hands on deck – nice.
  Of more concern is the boat’s freshwater maker. The 1,500 psi salt water line from the massive high pressure pump became abraded by wear while touching a bracket. This allowed a few gallons of water into the boat in only 15-seconds or so. I shut the watermaker down, taped the hose multiple times and braced it with four end to end cable clamps. Turning it back on, salt water popped through in a second – impressive. Plan B was encasing the area with a a split additional hose with similar clamps. That solution worked fine for 45-seconds, until the 1,500psi found partial freedom. A crew member saw that and immediately shut the watermaker main power without relieving pressure. Now, just powering the watermaker control panel causes the entire boat’s, primary 220Vac 32-amp breaker to instantly trip. I say ‘instantly’ because the watermaker’s 20-amp breaker does NOT trip. I could rip the watermaker circuitry apart, however by switching the toilets to salt water feed, we have sufficient fresh water for the journey, so why chance making it potentially ‘un-repairable’. Alternately, if we run out of drinking water, we have cases of ‘ships store’ wine aboard, and then who of us will care if we ever make St Lucia – joking!
 
  Speaking of wine, the Admiral (Sara) elected that we would NOT to have wine with our ‘Thanksgiving meal’ – oh well... On the flip side, yesterday Nick Farina used a deck-landed flying fish as a lure to land a 12-lb, 1-meter, mahi-mahi – a triumph! The last two days we’ve had mahi-mahi prepared six different ways – all excellent! Of course, we still can’t compete with S/V Venture’s 66-lb wahoo, that Nigel’s son caught.
 
  While 95% of the time, no boats are within our horizon vision, we did speak to a Dutch boat and a Canadian ARC+ boat that crossed our path within a mile or so. It is impressive the quality of individuals that make this trip. It is certainly not for the faint at heart, and one needs to attain a moderate amount of success to afford the venture.
 
  With 10-19-knots from due East tonight, we are smartly sailing 6-8-knots along a great-circle directly towards St Lucia. We remain roughly in the top 1/3 of the fleet and our class. All is good; moral is high, and I even heard Sara wish for more wind yesterday. We have that wind now (more than predicted), however I should have recorded her wish!
 
Tom Hughes


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