jp blog 7. 34N:44W

Plambeck
Thu 1 May 2014 01:01
Its been a lively night, the log often above 9kn and the sea got bumpier and, surprisingly, shorter. When I woke up this morning it sounded and almost felt as if I had driven the car up on the kerb, a short and hard bump. The watch told me that shortly afterwards they saw a small crate going by. May be some cargo lost over bord. Well, the kerb does not bother this car.
Three days ago I took a bottle of water from the storage above the bilge proper and it felt slimey, soapy. Very odd. As it turned out about ten pc of our coca cola cans had sprung a leak and emptied into the storage space. We sorted out one or two cans leaking alreday when we stored it. The filling plant must have had a bad supply of aluminium. Messy, but I wont miss the few spoilt cans. The crew who asked for all this coke on board is hardly consuming any. Is Cuba Libre named after Castros victory over the dictator Trujillo or is it a call to liberate Cuba from its present dictator Castro? Pity that revolutiions so rarely poduce acceptable results. This little excursion into politics shows that we are really underemployed here on board.
Must go on deck and tie in a third reef.
Two hours later. Decided to jibe. Went smoothly. Then I made a mess of putting the reef. Blew the fuse of the elctric winch but got a spare. Pleased I diid not break anything. Also retightened the belt of the generator. Too much use of the engine to keep the batteries topped up butno gear engaged to cover the distance under sail alone.
Still doing almost 8 knots and only 830nm to go. Even if we do those at 5kn it would only take 7 days. A new crew member is due to arrive on may 14 so plenty of time to visit other islands an spend time with Barbara and friend. Looking forward to it.
Talk to you soon.
J.