A week at sea....and all is well....By the time I post this tonight we will have travelled 1000 nm since leaving Tenerife!

Today is my day off and so I spent the first hour and a half making water and the next couple of hours reading the manual for the fifth time in the hope that I might find a clue as to why it isn’t working very well!  My considered opinion is that the cause is lack of water pressure through the intake.  It is mounted on the starboard side under the galley sink.  We seem to have more luck if the waves aren’t too big, if the boat is heeled to starboard and if we are doing under 6 knots... It is a shame as it is very stressful sitting at the bottom of the companionway staring at a small electrical panel for several hours a day. I think that the gauge is less than precise we never seem to have more than 340 litres in the tank even though I can see the water slapping on the inspection hatch (the tank capacity is 460 litres)

Today we also got an hour extra in bed (apart from Ian who was on watch) as we moved ships time.  We are still keeping GMT (I know it’s now called UT) as our time for communication with the outside world.

Not sure who is on watch at the moment, Ian and Dicken are sat in the cockpit playing Scrabble. 

It is hot and the disadvantage of downwind sailing is that the apparent wind is very light! The temperature in the cabin is now 30 c, not sure what it is on deck but shorts only is the dress code.  At night it cools a little and then we wear trousers and a windproof jacket. 

Still no sight of whales or flying fish.  Yesterday we sent Ian up the main mast and he couldn’t see anything!  Seriously, he volunteered to go up, someone has to check the rigging for signs of wear.  He returned giving the mast a clean bill of health.  It seems that some at least of our preparation has paid off all we have so far is a small amount of wear on the genoa sheet where it goes through the beak of the spinnaker pole.  We have end to ended it and may have to consider swapping sheets next weekend.

The last 24 hour run was 130 nm bringing us in two weeks today...my original prediction.

STOP PRESS....Dicken very nearly caught another fish!!  We got it as far as the back of the boat but couldn’t get it into the net and it escaped.  At least no tackle was lost this time.  It did persuade Dicken that the last one was huge as this time we reeled it in easily.

 

Love

Alasdair, Gill, Dicken, Ian, Habitat, Pickles and Star Charger

If you aren’t living on the edge you are taking up too much room.