Day 40 - Leg 3 Day 11 at Sea 'Fuel, moon and fish'
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Mon 3 Aug 2015 05:39
|
I said in my last post that I would try to make this one
more interesting, so here goes.....
Yesterday, we started to calculate what distance we have
to sail over the next 6 days and how long we can motor for, as the weather
forecast shows periods of light winds, particularly as we get closer to St
Pierre, Reunion. We need to work out how many miles to go, how much
fuel we have left, how many hours we will need to run the generator, which
should allow us to work out how far we need to sail,
whilst ensuring that we leave enough fuel to actually be able to use the
engine to motor to the berth in Reunion.
Some other things to take into consideration - We have 3
diesel tanks, one of which the generator can use, but we can use all 3 for the
engine. We can also transfer fuel between tanks (after a fashion).
If we are motoring, we don't need to use the generator to charge the batteries
as the engine also charges the batteries, so we can save fuel there.
However, if we are motoring, and need to make water, we need to run the
generator, so that is wasting fuel. So, we will plan on watermaking
when we are sailing, for example.
You also have to look at your potential time of
arrival. There is no point in arriving after dark, as the entrance to the
marina at St Pierre is pretty tricky and only to be attempted during
daylight hours. This point will become more relevant as we get closer but,
at the moment, bearing in mind that we need to sail for 48 hours over the next 5
days, the speed we sail at will still have a big influence on our arrival
time. As we get closer, and provided that we have managed to get a chunk
of our sailing hours done and haven't used much fuel, we can then start to be
more proactive eg use the engine if our speed falls below 6 knots. By the
time I post the next blog, we should have a better idea of our arrival date and
time in St Pierre.
We are currently approaching a full moon, so the nights
are getting brighter, and can be spectacular. For all you non-sailors, the
lights you display on a boat at night, navigation lights, are
not to help you see where you are going, as a car headlight does. They are
to enable other boats to se you and, also, the configuration of your navigation
lights explain what type of boat you are eg a sail boat displays a different set
of lights to a fishing boat.
So, if it a dark cloudy night with no moon or
stars, you can be sailing along in the pitch black, unable to see as far as your
mast - sounds spooky. What you actually do, is trust your instruments and,
most importantly, keep a good lookout for the navigation lights on other
boats.
However, if it is a clear night with a full moon, you
can see for miles and it does make for spectacular sailing. Even if it
isn't a full moon, the stars give off a surprising amount of light, bearing in
mind that we are a thousand miles offshore and there is no light
clutter.
Anyway, an update on our fishing. We have had a
line out for the past 3 days with the occasional nibble, but no actual
takers. Then, this lunchtime, we had fish on the end of the line.
Sam reeled it in but, after the last disaster, Paul wasn't allowed anywhere near
the gaffe hook. After about 20 minutes, we had landed and killed a 7
kilo mahi mahi. Yippee!!! Cerviche and fish steaks for dinner and
fish pie tomorrow - big smiles all round.
|