Thursday March 10th: on passage south
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Thu 10 Mar 2016 18:12
We set off from Salvador at 06:30 on Wednesday ie yesterday morning and have been moving rather slowly S on a very close reach ever since. We're only moving at only around 3 knots but in very benign conditions of F2 - 3 from the SE and blue skies and sea, apart from the first 10 minutes when it poured with rain.
That rain however showed that one of the bolts through the deck - the one right over the electrical switch panel - still leaked and some water, maybe a desert-spoon full, ran over the generator control unit. This promptly gave up the ghost and started the generator unbidden as a final convulsion before the LCD expired completely. It's really quite annoying as one might expect that marine equipment could survive a tiny dribbling - hardly a soaking - but it seems not. James re-packed the bolt with more butyl rubber and hopes that it will leak no more, and has put a bonnet of transparent plastic and gaffer tape over the switch panel for good measure. However by good fortune we had a spare electronic unit for the generator aboard since a micro-switch had failed on the previous one about 5 years ago and so we can unsolder parts from the one to effect a single working unit. So all is restored now apparently to full working order.
We are currently about 130 miles from Salvador - rather poor progress for more than 30 hours sailing - and making 2.5 knots not quite on our course but the GRIB file predicts slightly stronger winds, and from rather more to the east, tonight so hopefully progress should improve a little. But the conditions are so nice that it's no hardship being at sea rather than in port and is probably a bit cooler. We don't quite dare to go swimming for fear of sharks, not that we've seen any out here but are most definitely in an area where there are some. James thus had a only a very quick dip, lasting all of 20 seconds or so. the water is at 31.2 degrees at the moment.
Fiona's notes on boat life.
The temperature continues to plague our sleep and the state of the boat. For instance the outside of the black rubber water pipe from the deck filler is covered in a white mildew and the internal temperature of many of the lockers has meant retrieving vulnerable stores like chocolate and putting most of it into the fridge or in lockers near the bilge.
Our nice green bananas have gone yellow and spotty in less than 24 hours. Cooking has become a chore as the cabin heats up to around 35° when making supper and then does not reduce until an hour or two before dawn. While sailing we have begun snatching sleep on deck as there are no mosquitoes but when in port we have to have the mozzie nets up across the hatches which also restricts airflow through the boat. Fellow sailors tell us that they've considered installing air-conditioning; the thought has crossed our minds as well. Like them, we have found that rain squalls also disturbs repose as you have to get up past all the nets, go out and shut the hatches and thus yourself into the heat. Even the resident expats we met in Itaparica mentioned that this is one of the hottest late summers they recall and they are spending the day indoors waiting for the sun to go down!! That aside it's the most beautiful place and we'll both have phenomenally clean skin pores from all the sweating. And we wanted an adventure and to experience the extremes aboard as part of the trip. It certainly puts home comforts in a different light.