Houston, we have a problem!

Serendipity
David Caukill
Sat 6 Aug 2011 15:06

Saturday  Aug 6th :  Today's second  Blog by David. 35:51.15N 05:56.32W

 

Firstly, a couple of pictures that we were very happy  to be able to take….

 

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….of Gibraltar receding into the background as we headed east through the Strait of Gibraltar. 

 

Predictably the wind was against us – West F6/7. We simply turned the iron topsail on , plugged into it and toughed it out. After about three hours, we saw:

 

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Tarifa – the southern most tip of Spain – a place where it is said to blow 40 miles an hour (Force8/9) 300 days a year – but fortunately, not today!  We plugged on for another  10 miles then once we got beyond the shipping lanes the wind abated and we were able to bear away, ease the sheets and turn the engine off.  And about time too!

 

And now to our problem….

 

SALT, or more accurately corrosion.  The marine environment is one of the most hostile for machinery and metals. The presence of salt provides the ions for a galvanic cell and most metals corrode badly, particularly if in contact with other, different metals. This is especially true of iron and steel … and aluminium.

 

Now, much of our ship’s stores are contained in cans and particularly aluminium. Those tins stored below the cabin sole are particularly vulnerable, particularly since the Day of Noah which distributed salt liberally below the floor. Why this is of particular concern is that – because that area is cool - we have stored most of the ship’s essential supplies there. The salt has got at it and the cans are suffering from pitting corrosion and gradually, one by one, are emptying their contents into the bilge. This has two disadvantages that spring immediately to mind. One is that it makes the bilges smell. The other is that this is our entire store of beer that I am talking about !!  So we now need to drink the affected  beer.   It seems that the Greene King Abbot is the worst affected.

 

Nice problem to have after last week’s machinations, I know. However, Abbot was on offer at Tesco (£3.69 for four tins) ……….  so we do have rather a lot.

 

Tant pis!  The sun is shining, the sea is blue and we are sailing  - in the direction we want to go – namely, towards the Canaries. We’ll get over it.