We have managed to sail remarkably well over the past 2
days, despite very light winds at times We have found that the wind often dies
at early evening and just when we are getting depressed at the thought of hand
steering through the night, the wind picks up and we have a good nights sailing.
We have only used 2 engine hours in the last 2 days.
We have just about filled the Port tank with watermaker
water, but need to use up the Starboard tank before switching completely to our
own fresh water. We will have to look out the rehydration salts as the
watermaker removes all the good water ingredients as well as the
bad.
Our priority is now to run the fridge for cold beer and
Champagne, however it is only working occasionally and keeps switching itself
off – this is a major problem as we must have cold Champagne!!!
We now (9.30 am Antigua time (-4hrs)) have just 130
miles to go so will arrive early Sunday. We plan to anchor in the bay during the
day and get the boat sorted out, then late afternoon go in to the Customs berth
and stay there the night, then book in early Monday. This will avoid any Sunday
overtime charges as well as having some other advantages.
We have been reviewing our issues during the crossing
and looking at what we need to consider to resolve the issues.
·
We need to get the autopilot fixed, but also as a backup
we will look again at fitting a small autopilot to the Windpilot to operate when
there is no wind. Inga (Brian & Coralie) have this system, so I will seek
advice.
·
With the amount of cloudy days we had, particularly
early on we struggled to get enough battery charging power form the solar panels
and wind generator.We will look at fitting one of the new generation Aqua
Generators. These are much ,ore efficient and easier to deploy and remove than
our old Aquair aqua generator. They claim to give 10 amps at 6 knots and only
result in 0.1knot drag.
·
We need to get the diesel generator fixed, but they are
so unreliable that we cant depend on this, it will be a bonus if it is
working.
·
We need to review how our twin headsails are set up and
find a way to reduce the chaff on the sheets, although I have already made
progress on this with the use of some additional blocks.
There are always things to do. Susan says I have too
much time overnight to think about how to spend more money, but as Ian (Lucy
Alice) says it is boat money, it doesn’t count!
