Atlantic Crossing Day 7
Macushla
Mark & Sue Owen
Sat 28 Jan 2012 14:06
Miles travelled in the last 24 hours: 148
Miles logged since leaving the Canaries: 1007
Miles to go to Barbados: 1,885
All is well on board and we enjoyed fast sailing on flat seas through the night.
It must be a result of spending too much time on watch alone, but like other cruisers we have given names to some of our favourite bits of gear (think Wilson in the film 'Castaway' starring Tom Hanks). It seems to us they have characters all of their own and we almost consider them as additional crew:
- Henry, our Hydrovane wind-vane steering system, who flaps around in the wind all day and does sterling work in keeping us on course without any appetite for power.
- Bob, our Autopilot relies on his hydraulic ram and a bucket load of amps to achieve the same as Henry, albeit infinitely more precise. For power conservation reasons Bob is well rested on this trip.
- Dougie, our DuoGen combined water or wind generator, who spends most of his time in the water being towed astern, generating power for us day and night. Along with the solar panels, this provides us with all the power we need to run the on board systems. Only when we are at anchor does he get to raise his head above water and operate in wind mode.
- Sarah, a recent addition who joined us from the LeRoy Merlin hardware store in Gran Canaria. She is an outdoor beanbag and lounges around in the cockpit day and night in her cerise pink outfit, but does a wonderful job providing comfort for the crew.