Day 12, 13
Gins.pt
Sat 5 Dec 2009 20:19
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Early Thursday morning we crossed the point :
1000 miles to go.
The wind decreased to force 3 , sometimes 4. It
came from the back and the wind speed was reduced by the speed of the boat,
so only a few knots actually pushed the sail. In the ocean with 2 to 3 m waves
the boat rolled like made and the sails without enough wind started flapping.
And that went on the whole day. In despair we tried to hoist the gennaker
and
use it like spinnaker, but it didi not work.
Gennaker is not a downwind sail. During the night there were a lot of
clouds
and they brought some more wind, sometimes with
gusts up to 25 knots.
On Friday the picture repeated, weak winds
despite the weather forecast telling us about 15 to 20 knots. It was around 10
knots, flapping sails and rolly sea. In the evening the wind was around 8 knots
and at 23:00 we decided to stop the agony. We put the engine on and rushed away
with 8,5 knots of speed. At 2 am we set the sails again as it was blowing with
20 knots, but after one hour it was back to the old pattern. So engine on
again till sunset when we finally reached the zone with steady 15
knots ( Force 4Bf).
All together the engine was used for 8,5
hours.
I found out that the alternator which was changed
in Las Palmas did not work. We will have to fix it in St.
Lucia.
The crew is relaxed, we have enough supplies, we
shall be in St Lucia in well in time for our flights and have time to thoroughly
clean the boat. Our estimation is that we shall reach our destination
sometimes during Thursday.
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