Bermuda to Azores Saturday 11.5.13
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Sat 11 May 2013 15:30
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We passed a pleasant enough evening last night as
conditions improved. No more squalls and even slightly less lumpy seas so a tad
less slamming. You might have thought that this would be a recipe for
improving morale...
However, this morning, Nigel checked bilges...we
took on a fair amount of water on the trip to Bermuda from Dominican Republic
whilst sailing on starboard tack, as we are now, and we suspected a leak from a
deck fitting, or even the anchor locker...somewhere forward, anyway. Well
this morning, we had gallons of water sloshing around midships, in the central
bilges.
After bailing it out, we are now pretty sure we
have a persistent leak from the keel. It seems to be linked to sailing on
starboard tack, and may be associated with the creaking, cracking sound we get
when on starboard.
The leak is about a pint every half hour or so, and
manageable with sponges etc at the moment.
We are keen to make progress to Azores, but none to
keen to press too hard and heel over...as this might increase the
problem.
So in 16 knots of breeze, we are inching along at 4
knots, still headed north, looking for calmer seas into which we might make
better headway, in lighter winds as we try to head up onto a close hauled
course. At present we can only sail cracked off at 50 degrees apparent, as the
waves stop us dead if we try to sail higher..
Position as at 1530UT;
37 25.405N 42 49.739W
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