Atlantic Washing Machine

s/y Geronimo - Atlantic Crossing Autumn 2011
World Wide Water Events B.V.
Sun 13 Nov 2011 12:48
Sunday Afternoon, 13.11.2011
 
Our strategy to avoid the strong southwesterly winds by hugging the coats of Morocco seems to have worked well. Maybe even too well, as we for the past 24 hours or so have been sailing only on and off for short periods of time. Yesterday afternoon - somewhere off the coast of Morocco, between Cap Sim and Cap Rhir - we decided to turn towards the Canary Islands in hope of more wind, but not too much. The weather forecast showed winds between south and west 15-20 knots. Well, of that we haven't seen anything. But the swell is incredible: 3 m swell from north west + 2 m swell from east + 1 m swell from south. And wind speed below 4 knots. It feels like being in a washing machine!
 
On top of this we had fuel problems with continuously blocked fuel pipes from the only fuel tank that is still almost full. After an hour or so of work and half a dozen cleanings of the pipe - all with the boat rocking and rolling like crazy - we seem to be back and running again. At least for now.
 
Next problem is that we will not be able to run under engine all the way to Las Palmas, not even to Lanzarote. So let's hope for some wind  - will download the latest grib file at the same time as sending this blog text. Anyway, we still hyave abt. 250 miles to go to Las Palma, so we hope to be there on Tuesday.