Day 4 sees us hunkered down in a 25 to 35 kt east southeasterly doing a
close reach in a due south direction, so the boat is tossing and turning
like a wild bronco. Its usually the crew who reach the end of their tether
before the boat does so we are trying to stay cool. But I almost lost it at
dinner time. The full plates were sitting on non skid pads on the bench
ready to be passed out and you can guess what happened. The boat did a
particularly violent lurch, and two of the plates flew across the boat
depositing their contents in a precise arc. I wasn't very calm when that
happened. And part way through today I discovered the the whole front of the
boat, bathroom and toilet were awash with 75mm of water. Thankfully the
problem turned out to the the salt water supply to the toilet - the
automatic valve that fills the bowl had stuck open after the loo had been
used. So that was easily fixed. And then I noticed diesel fuel in the
bilges. A frantic search for the cause soon found the reason - a cap had
come off one of the dip points for the tanks and the full tank was slopping
diesel out as the boat rolled. That required another major cleanup job! But
thankfully there were only a few litres involved.
We are running the staysail and one reef and the boat is handling that well.
The wind generator is screaming its head off which is disconcerting. But it
is more than covering the demand from the autopilot so the batteries are all
full. So we are making good time despite all the distractions.We think we
have another 24 hrs of these conditions before it lightens a little and
swings to the east.
We are all well with no seasickness, although Chris has gone a bit quiet
this afternoon. We shall have to see how he is tomorrow.
We have 620 miles to run before we get to the Bay of Islands, or 735 miles
before we get to Auckland. A low is forming off Brisbane which may give us
some grief as we get closer, But at the moment the forecasters think it will
head north rather than towards NZ. We will cope with that when and if it
eventuates.
