Day 8

Tuesday 4th June 12.00 BST

Position – 46 16 71N 26 22 13W

Log 1057 miles (109 over last 24 hours)

I am sorry, but today I am going to be brief – it has not been a good one generally!

I had a long night, light and ever changing winds meant that I was unable to get much sleep. I worked the boat hard and it seemed to have paid off as at 0800 this morning I had taken a few miles out of the leader since yesterday.

The winds continued to be light all day although I felt that in 10kn of wind I was doing well to keep the boat moving at around 5kn and making my waypoint.  I have also passed the 1,000 miles mark and my DTF is showing under 2,000 miles – so 1/3 down 2/3 to go.  My nearest lend mass is now the Azores, some 400 miles to the south of me – I am over 700 miles west of Ireland.  But it has been slow progress – having done 155 miles in the previous 24 hours, my best run, the last 24 was only 109, my worst.2

I spent all morning trying to fix the monitor, but alas I have declared it knackered and beyond repair – so now I need to rely on Arnold and that is going to require a constant supply of power.  The engine has been charging ok for the last couple of days, so I was not too worried.

However at 1630 this afternoon my power was running low so I went to start the engine and……..NOTHING.  After ½ hour everything shut down, including the auto-helm, so I had no option but to go hove-to whilst I tried to sort it out.  This took a good 2 hours when finally, with much more help from DL, I managed to ‘hot-wire’ it and got it started.  As I write this, the batteries are once again charging nicely.  It has however meant that with a couple of hours stationary, I will have given away a fair bit of mileage to the other boats – but hey-ho - c’est la vie!  The only positive is that if they are in the same wind as I am, it is unlikely that they will be making much more than 3-4kn – so it’s not a disaster.  And at least I know how to steal a boat now if I ever need to!!

I need to try to catch up on some sleep this evening and through the night as it has been in short supply for the last couple of nights and I am feeling a bit weary.

Nothing of any great interest to report on the domestic front.  Boris is fine.  I have cleaned and dried the boat up as best I can after the gales of Sunday.

To JB – sorry I am late again with the delivery of my blog, but I have been up to my ears in it for the last few days – I will try to be more punctual in future!! J

BFN

C, Boris and Beagle