Day 15 - 07 48.86S 131 33.33W
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Fri 14 May 2010 23:44
Saw our first ship today, the first yacht/ship/plane, in fact the first sign of any life since leaving the Galapagos on 29th April. It was 4 miles away and with relatively big seas we could just see it as it disappeared over the horizon. We could see it manoeuver on AIS and it's change in direction suggested it was a big industrial fishing boat. Wind has come round more to the east and we took the mainsail down and are running under our 2 genoas, the outer one being poled out to windward. The motion is more comfortable and we were flying along, but a bit too fast. We don't want any other breakages, so we reefed both sails right down, but are still doing 7 to 8 kts.
The fuel tank is continuing to leak, but slowly, as yesterday. The fuel gauge suggests we have fuel left, but the tank has never been this low before, so we don't know if we can trust the gauge. Liz is sprinkling Channel No 5 around the boat to camouflage the smell of diesel, and it is working! If the winds keep up and we are able to keep our current speed, our ETA is Monday morning at first light. So we hope there will be enough diesel in the tank to run the engine when we get there. We should be able to anchor under sail, but the anchorage is in the lee of the island and it's likely that the wind will die completely that side. If that happens, having a working engine will make it a lot easier!
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