38 16.065N 010 53.370E Noonsite at sea between Sicily and Sardinia

Pipedream
Sat 10 Sep 2011 10:10
Off to a slow start. Made 96 miles yesterday. It was really rough and blowing 25 right on our nose until about 7:00 PM last night rounding the corner around south Sicily. Have been motoring all the way with spot of motor sailing in between. Presently making about 4.3 with a 4 kt head wind.

If we can't find some favorable wind soon we will likely stop in on the tip of Sardinia to take on some more Diesel before crossing to the Spanish Balearics. Pretty uneventful night after we left the immediate coast of Sicily most of the shipping dropped off. Mike and I took turns sleeping in the cockpit. Cooled off pretty good out there and we had to resort to long pants and socks... a first in a long while.

The engine has developed a small leak in the raw water cooling piping again. It is hard to fix while under way. The relay that switches the refrigerator motor on and off has died. Bruce if you get this see if you can remember what you used 20 years ago. It is now switching 55 amps at 12 VDC... Made the motor bigger and hoped the really would take it... wrong again. I hot wired around the relay and now have to time the on off cycle myself... so much for automation. Nothing here to challenge our safety... We still have cold beer!