"32:00.46N 010:26.84W"

R A I N B O W - JH2
1934 Am Cup Ltd
Mon 9 Dec 2019 05:25

We are 24 hours from Lanzarotte. Another good trip from Gibraltar, and making good times, we are half a day of schedule and in total 1 day ahead from the beginning of the trip.

 

Yesterday we put on the new delivery mainsail. There was a period of little wind, so we were able to hoist it and run some quick checks and see the dimensions. All looks good, but we will see the shape better when we have wind.

This is basically a small mainsail which is loose footed (basically a big tri-sail) so we can sail comfortably without using the boom. As the boom on Rainbow is 70 foot long and has no vang to keep it down, it is pretty precarious when sailing downwind in Atlantic swells. There is a good chance of mishaps with not many people on deck. So we have got this new sail which should push us along nicely and more importantly safely. It is a delivery not a race, so a safe trip is necessary.

 

We have a cooling issue on the propeller shaft, which we took the opportunity to change water pumps to see if we could get the system working better. Not a lot changed, so we will investigate further in Lanzarote. It is something which has troubled us for a year or so, and we cannot fix the issue, so more thinking necessary. Everything else is running cooler after the yard period, only this has stayed the same. More room for improvement. It has not got worse, we just cannot make it better. Maybe never will, but still good to try.

 

The weather made a remarkable change once we left the Med. The sun came out and was nice and warm, and thermals during the day have been put away, and one layer less at night.

 

That’s all for now.

 

JH2

 

Position

 

"32:00.46N 010:26.84W"