position S09 34.400 W134 57.000
Ocean Rival Journey Log
Adam Power Diana Power
Tue 12 Sep 2017 22:48
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Tuesday 13th September. 70miles for 24 hrs. Light
wind sailing seems to be harder work with sail changes more
frequent.
We actually motored yesterday for about 8 hours with wind having abandoned us completely at around lunchtime. The engine having not started then did after another round of starter motor removal and replacement. Stupidy I forgot the extra level of switching required to excite the alternator and so didn't charge the batteries while it was running. That I think resulted in failure to start this morning having given the engine a well earned rest and check on fluid levels. It may be our starter motor trouble still but it sounds like the solonoid is at least doing its thing with a click. Needless to say there hasn't been a surfit of sun today to charge up the batteries so I am unsure if we have enough charge or not. The spinaker came down in the afternoon and we repaired a new tear with sticky sail tape in the evening. Also had to do a quick spinsaker pole repair overnight after the end pulled off. 4 of my most heavy duty pop rivets should hold it O.K. The breeze did however pick up a little this morning after a good session of scrubbing decks and general clean up-sufficient for a couple of knots under poled out genoa. Rather than put up the spinaker again I thought to try an unconventional arragement of geneka sheeted off the main boom which is held out to port with a preventer to the bow, while keeping the genoa poled out to starbd. That is pulling nicely and we are making almost 4 knots in about 9 knots of (actual) wind. The sail arrangement is sensitive to direction so we are steering with the electric autohelm which is counter productive for the battery levels. We will hope for more sun tomorrow. It is much warmer now the wind has dropped and we are seeking the shade from our curtains much more actively than before and drinking a lot more water. Water storage is still on the right side of acceptible with 2nd tank still unused so we have been very abstemious so far. |