Atlantic Crossing day 21 Getting closer!

SeaWalk op reis
Sergej & Isabelle Berendsen
Sun 14 Dec 2008 12:22

 

 

Today was supposed to be our arrival date according to our original plan. Isabelle made the menu until today. Does that mean that we don’t have any food anymore? Fortunately it doesn’t. We still have plenty but getting low on drinking water.

 

Our Watermaker has been fixed in St Lucia by a Schenker engineer. Well, that didn’t work so the piece of shit is still producing brackish water. I certainly won’t buy that again. Yesterday I took the membranes apart again and redid everything. At least the taste of the water is better, drinkable. But it far form the lovely fresh taste it should be able to make. This is becoming one never ending story.

 

All day we’ve had very light winds. So much so that our estimate arrival date on the computer is being pushed to the 17th. Even with the Genaker and Genoa (together 150 m2 area of sail) we couldn’t make more than 4 knots. In the evening we started the engine prepared to motor through the night but after 4 hours I came on watch and saw some wind. We’ve been sailing at 7 knots ever since. We managed a 136 mile run which is considering the conditions is very good.

 

Again it was an exciting night. Under many shooting stars the squalls were all around and dodging them was proving a good way to stay awake. We even saw the navigation lights of two other sailing yachts behind us. So we are not alone anymore.

 

Early in the morning Isabelle and Yannick heard a snap followed by a boom. She immediately got me out of bed. Isabelle and I scrambled on deck. I was still sleepy so it took a while to get my bearings. I started furling in the Jib anyway. After a minute I understood the rope which holds the downhaul, preventer and the jib sheet block snapped and the spinnaker boom was having a party of it own. Easily fixed but it took some time to let the adrenaline subside before turning in again.

 

252 miles to go! ETA is now still the 16th.