Day 16 of Atlantic Crossing

Swiftwing
Mon 10 Dec 2007 21:29
Lat/Lon at 1200 GMT: 16:40.58N 42:42.02W
 
    With Dougie well established as the boat's cook, a good number of the small parachutes spliced on to the sea anchor, Neil's pride restored after his catch and everyone well rested for a change, in spite of the night watches, things were going well today. I even had time (and the inclination) to do some washing and Dougie found the time to read! In fact, the full extent of our problems were the handset of the satellite phone playing up - we suspect a bad connection - and the confusing matter of our GPS units directing us North of East, when St. Lucia is actually a few degrees South. We checked the paper charts and found we were right, we should be bearing slightly South. As a final check, we coaxed the temperamental, moody and very fragile Raymarine Chartplotter into life. It agreed with the humans so that was that. We're not sure what's wrong with the GPS's, as we used the same coordinates for everything. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we reach the waypoint. Still, on such a fine day we allowed ourselves a can of precious Coke with lunch (toast with peanut butter or slightly fermented jam).
    The good mood lasted untill teatime (another exellent corned beef based dish), and we were confident that we would get through the day without any mishaps. Not so.
    When one of the ropes connecting the self-steering gear to the tiller snapped with a twang and a sudden change of course, noone was too surprised. After all, the ropes had been fraying for a few weeks. The only real surprise was that it hadn't happened in the middle of the night.
    After a frenzied (well, sort of) rush to make the repair before dark, we were back on the self steering gear before Neil finished his cup of tea. Lets hope it stays that way, nobody likes helming at night.
 
    John