Saturday 26th Australia Day 13:26N 70:36W
Southern Princess
John & Irene Hunt
Sun 27 Jan 2008 00:25
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I forgot in the excitement of starting off for
Panama to introduce our crew for the next couple of months.
Chris & Faith Mortimer we met while sailing in
Sicily about 3 years ago and they have since curtailed their sailing activities
and have settled in Cyprus. We have been in email contact since last we saw then
in Marmaris, Turkey during 2006 and they volunteered to come as far as the
Galapagos with us. They have their own Naiad 49 and are very experienced sailors
with many miles of ocean passages under their keel.
Yesterday afternoon was a bit of fun! A series of
lines squalls formed quite a large front and blew around 25 knots right up our
backside and SP just loved it. Averaging over 9 knots for a good while and
topped out at 12.9 knots at one stage.
The log states:
12:00 250108
Course & wind indications as 06:30. Replaced
the automatic bilge pump as inlet plastic tube failed on existing. Chris traced
the wiring so that the alarm would function correctly. The noon sched showed us
in a comfortable position around 35nm ahead of Storyteller. IT IS NOT A
RACE!
15:30 250108
Running the genset again. The battery charger
circuit breaker will not hold both banks on charge and they have to be done one
at a time. Just about 83nm due north of the ABC Islands at this time and around
140nm off the Columbian coast which is where we want to be. You will recall that
during the Atlantic crossing we did not have sufficient 12 volt battery
capacity; this we remedied while in St Lucia with the installation of three
115amp hour AGM batteries giving a useable capacity of 160 amp hours. We
couldn't obtain a circuit breaker in St Lucia with enough capacity to handle
both the 12 & 24 volt banks so I have to charge them one at a time. I will
have to remedy this in Panama.
 Yesterday's lure, with the little
pink barb covers removed proved
immediately effective. Around 5
kilos of yellow fin tuna which
formed the basis of last night's
meal and I understand ceviche
for lunch today. Well done
Chris!
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