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Mojeka - Mojeka – Transatlantic Day 3



17:00 UTC Friday Nov. 20, 2015
Position: 17.898851N, 30.697025W

WATER, WATER, WATER!

…I am not talking about the blue stuff surrounding us for miles on end.

I am talking about the pristine fluid coming out of our watermaker.

Dave and I with the help of a large support team performed extensive open-heart surgery on our watermaker by spending hours in “the cave” to take the machine apart and extract the “Rooibos generator” (we found that name to be easier to remember than “Rooboost Amplifier”). It is the large central unit in which two pistons move around (when they do) to produce the pressure with which the salt water is pushed through the membrane. In the course of events we think we now know so much about wastermakers, we could design one!
Anyway, you take that apart, see the pistons, “take a large hammer” (original advice by our french advisor) and push down on the pistons to get them going again.
And then the huge surprise: after putting everything back together again – IT WORKED!!!
We are already 60 liters closer to our first shower since Mindelo. So we are not out of the woods yet (bad analogy), since, as Roger put it you should not count your Rooibos before it hatches.
The crew (4 out of 7 with British passports) has announced that once the water tank is full they will sing the Marseilaise in their first shower in praise of the french technician who saved us from a fate greater than remaining dirty.

Over all this we almost forget that we are sailing. But there is not much to report. Blue skies, few clouds, 26°C, winds from the east now (hence the course change you might have noticed) and typical atlantic swell as you see in the movies. Even Monique is up and about again.  Winds are 15 to 20kt which is unfortunate since they are slightly too high for our Gennaker. Paradox: ff they were consistently below 18kt we could hoist that and actually be faster!

So it is time to get back into a routine: Chili con Carne for dinner! You guessed it: still no Tuna.

Klaus






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