18.10.53N 53.38.15W

JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Wed 5 Dec 2007 23:03
T'was not I who shot the albatross ( read "The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner ).
 
so why do we suffer from a lack of wind.Its been 2 days now of very light or non existent winds causing our daily runs to be well down.We are currently motor sailing more motoring than sailing I might add.
 
I was going write that it has its compensations but it doesn't it is just slow.The first of the big boats (63 ft) have reached Jolly Harbour our destination in Antqua with the rest of us expecting to arrive over the next week.We should arrive Sunday / Monday if the anticipated trade wind re-establishes itself shortly otherwise we might not arrive until Monday.
 
Many of the yachts are now running very short of diesel which will cause them to slow considerably, although anumber of boats have reported breakdown of equipment there have not been any major issues which would stop the boat sailing.As always watermakers ,generators and various pumps have given problems to a variety of boats but the major issues has been radio communications on SSB and I think that most of this has been down to the quality of the installation,it is very evident out here which boats have it installed correctly.
 
While you are approaching winter we are sweltering out here in 40 deg even the sea is 31 deg and Chris has been taking a daily dip, we keep a lookout for the sharks on the odd occasion.Yesterday Alan managed to catch a barracuda type fish(we have the picture) part of which we had last night for dinner ,it was delicious,but we now need to use up the meat in the freezer.I ,must say it makes a change from them overtaking the boat ,if only we could harness fish power.
 
Back to boating matters, our number one enemy on the long passages is chafe, everything that is subject to movement wears  and needs checking everyday.We have already changed the ends of several lines and today we found that the three retaing screws on the furling gear were loose in fact one had already fallen out,remember this was only fitted new in June by the riggers.Any change in sound operation or movement on any part of the boat is checked out any bolts,pins or screws found on the deck traced,its the ones that you don't find because they have gone overboard that cause the problems.
 
So hear we are 450nm to go sweltering in the heat and looking forward to a nice cold Beer in the Caribbean sun. STOP PRESS WE SAW OUR  FIRST SHIP FOR 10 days It was an event