Last Day - Tuna, Engine Trouble, Egg Head, Rouge Wave and Georges Birthday!

Emerald
Voller Energy / Mark Tilley
Fri 14 Dec 2007 15:44
Friday 14th December 2007
 
Last Day - Tuna, Engine Trouble, Egg Head, Rouge Wave and Georges Birthday!
 
You'd think after three weeks of writing this blog I'd have run out of things to write about but what an eventful 24 hours we've just had. To start with Pugwash seems to have been our lucky charm on the fishing front as yesterday afternoon we caught a blue fin tuna, hurrah! George did the usual and prepeared it all for us and it was very tasty. Less tasty were the tinned veg that we had left to serve it with but hey, you cant have everything.
 
Soon after catching the fish we put the engine on to top up the batteries. It chugged along a bit being its usual noisy, smelly, diesel self then with a phut phut it died. Nothing. No alarm, no warning, just nothing. It seems after some investigation by George and James that some air had gotten into the fuel tube, probably due to all the rolling around we have been doing in these great big waves. After bleeding the system it worked again later in the day which is great because we really weren't keen on attempting an entrance into Rodney Bay harbour under sail! 
 
We had a bit of rain late afternon so had to pull the top hatch cover over to stop it entering the main saloon. I came up the stairs from the cabin and smacked my head on it breaking my sunglasses which were on the top of my head and banging my head quite hard. I went downstairs to get rid of the broken glasses and wham,charging back up the stairs I did it again. Doh! With no cap or sunglasses to take the brunt of the bang this time it really hurt and today Im sporting a nice little egg shaped lump on my head. Father Christmas, if you're reading this, I'm now without sunglasses so if you happen to be passing Gucci or Prada you know what I need ;-)
 
Just after dark we had our lovely evening meal of the blue fin tuna. Becci, Mark and I ate up deck and had just finished when a huge wave crashed from the starboard side of the cockpit, completely soaking me from head to foot, and filling the whole cockpit and part of the cabin with water. I know I said I needed a bath but I would have preferred one in fresh water. The rear cabin also got a soaking as the window that opens into the cockpit had been left open to air the cabin. Today the boat is covered with matresses and clothes all being dried out, but at least the floor got a good clean with the help of the rogue wave and my towel so that saves us one job on arrival.
 
Currently we have 52 nautical miles to go so it looks as though we will be anchoring up outside the harbour tonight. The only remaining challenge today is to get George out of the galley long enough today so we can cook his surprise (shh dont tell him) birthday cake. A big sticky chocolate affair complete with candles!
 
Will let you know when we have all arrived.
 
Justine

JPEG image

JPEG image