Spindrift ARC Log - Day 11
Austins' Travels
Chris & Lynn Austin
Wed 30 Nov 2011 15:33
nautical miles in the last 24 hours which is a really good run. We have been
sailing for 10 days now and expect to be about half way across by sometime
tonight. So we decided to have a half way celebration tomorrow with a
special meal (probably not fish) and showers.
We investigated a water leak from the diesel generator and suspect it is
from underneath the exhaust outlet pie so we can't do anything much about it
except keep emptying the bilge of the water the leaks. It isn't a problem
unless it gets any worse and doesn't affect the performance of the
generator. We just have to keep emptying the bilge while it is running.
The watermaker is holding up well - still leaking a bit but less than when
we started. We are doing well on water as we are now half way and have
enough to complete the trip.
Last night we saw the lights of a couple of yachts a few miles away.
Otherwise an uneventful and relaxed night.
At night we run a watch system where four of us do four hours on watch each.
The watches overlap by one hour with each other and we spend two hours on
solo watch. So the first starts at 1900-2300 then the next starts at
2200-0200 then 0100-0500 then 0400-0800. This then repeats during the day
although in a less formal way as often there are several on deck at any
time. But keeping the watch system means that it is always clear who is
responsible for keeping a lookout. Shaun doesn't do an overnight watch but
does a day time 1600-1900 and this allows us to move everyone forward by one
watch each day. So if I do 1900-2300 one day I will do 2200-0200 the next
and 0100-0500 the next, etc. In fact Shaun does a lot of the daytime watch
when it handed over to him so that the others can do other jobs (like
cooking or this blog).
Only one medium size mahi mahi today so we need another or our fish dinner
is at risk but we still have a few hours to get one. We had some excitement from a bite from a very large fish that had the line screaming out and the rod bent double but it broke free when I put pressure on the line - probably a good thing!