4th Day
Ile Jeudi
Bob and Lin Griffiths
Mon 28 Jan 2013 14:06
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21:04.16N 20:58.41W
Monday 28 January 2013 at 1200
Distance Run last 24 hrs
130nm
Distance Run since start 500.5
nm
Distance to go 334nm
The wind and sea increased again yesterday
afternoon . The wind direction changed just a little as well which enabled
us to sail a slightly better course towards our target. The larger seas
has made sleeping a little more difficult again because of the rolling and the
general creaks, cracks and groans from the boat. We find we sleep poorly
for two sessions and then crash out on the third.
Half way point was passed soon after 9pm
yesterday but it's still a pretty cold wind. The sea is about 19 deg
which, whilst much better than the UK, is less than we expected this far
south. We are still wearing full thermals, neck scarves, hats
and wet weather gear to stay warm in the cockpit, especially at
night.
We has a challenging couple of hours on the
saloon floor between 6 and 8 am this morning. Lin had noticed the
fridge was getting warmer and was defrosting. We checked the water pump
and cleaned the rather clogged filter! But there was saltwater in the
bilge which we think was from the pump system under strain when it was
blocked. We mopped it out, and other adjacent bilges. We will
monitor it to make sure the source isn't something else.
In the process we found fresh water in another
bilge. This was coming from the feed pipe from the watermaker to a
watertank (this connection was not touched during the recent watermaker
repairs). The pipe was removed to re-make the connection but this meant
there was a hole in the water tank through which freshwater leaked as the boat
rolled. Lin had to lie there with her finger over the hole as if she was
at a dutch dyke whilst I took far too long to reconnect the pipe to the under
sized fitting. She was incredibly patient throughout the whole thing and
we were glad we hadn't been doing this before we got our sea legs. The
fridge seems to be working again.
10 minutes after I went to bed we heard
an unfamiliar phone ringing. It was the satphone. I just missed the
call but could see it was from somewhere in Greece. It rang again and
someone wanted to speak to the captain. Yes, speaking (this is strange -
who in Greece knows our number?). Are you Captain Polonos? (or
something Greek sounding ending in 'os'). No, this is a private
sailing boat. Oh sorry, and he rang off. One thing we didn't expect
at sea was to get a 'wrong number' call on the phone. He obviously didn't
expect it either as he rang twice more before he seemed convinced the number was
wrong.
Lin is wearing mainly Henri Lloyd this
season:-
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