13 March
Frasersboat
Mon 13 Mar 2006 20:22
Another good day on the boat, nay wind, pudding surface struggling to make
some miles.
Stove stuffed, watermaker being nursed along but showing signs of making a
partial recovery. Every day it works is one less day of potential hand
pumping got to be good. Seriously, I have had the ammeter on it today ,
given it a new oil chamge! Do electric motors need oil chnages, this one
does now! Sorted the photo cell problem finally after finding a broken wire
so not a bad day really. With the both solar panels in service this will
give us more time on the PC to read all of your lovely emails.
Oh great, today we were surrounded by dolphin, I don't know how many,but
lots up to 2.5m length. Leaping around and making sounds like bird song even
when they were all submrerged, giving the boat a gentle nudge on its way,
superb.
When we look back only a few weeks, survival on the boat was much more on an
edge with waterproofs, fleeces ande the like used all the time. There was
always water over the deck and life seemed hard. We worked very hard to push
south-west to get to a place where the trade winds could help ease us to
Antigua. Now we are here its like being on the starting line and the race
has been cancelled. Its calm and directionless and we are impatient to take
off. We are waiting for the traditional pattern of ENE with a roller pattern
in the same direction. Every day they are not there we push a little closer
to the end but not at the speed we would like.I mentioned the start being
tough. I know we have no stove but the days are enjoyable, jobs and rowing
in good weather. When we get pushed along a bit it may even get better.
i