Shower time: 16.17.82N 51.28.31W
Kantara Atlantic Odyssey
Andy Hemens
Sun 4 Dec 2011 19:42
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Hi All,
Have had some interesting reaction to yesterday's
blog posting and there have been a few questioning our sanity after 2 weeks a
sea, but I can assure you we are all as sound in the head as when we left, if
that comforts you.
Had a good night run making good speed straight
down our rhum line and crew were up at crack of dawn to launch spinnaker which,
other than a brief drop during a squall, has now been flying for nearly 12
hours. The first half of the night is now fully lit by the moon so we plan to
hold the kite until around 10pm when the first proper night shift
starts.
It has been getting very hot over the last few days
and as a consequence squall watch has become shower watch as the crew hang
around with shower gel in hand in anticipation of a fresh water shower
- seems a long time ago that squalls generated fear.
As some of you know I did give a lot of thought to
power consumption pre trip and fitted a couple of solar panels as
backup to the generator. During the day, the solar panels are just about
providing our full power needs but we have needed to run the engine for around
an our per day t cover the night time consumption. We have also been hand
steering all day and most evenings provided thee is good visibility so have
avoided the drain of the autohel which is now known as Helena - there is a
statutory fine for referring to Helena as autohelm. However, I have just
discovered that Mike has been running a mini Pixar setup in his boudoir and has
already a 30 minute video of our trip, which explains the higher than
anticipated power consumption.
Only 570 miles to go no but the winds are looking a
bit fluky particularly Tuesday and Wednesday so not sure when we will finally
pull into St Lucia
Andy
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