Motoring, again.
Sygitana
Mon 3 Sep 2018 10:49
SOG 5.3kts
COG 203T
Good morning all,
a very quiet night with no ships sighted after dark. no moon either and no stars so a dark night which had spots of rain at times in the small hours. it is warmer now and for the most part we have ditched foul weather jackets at night in favour of just a light fleece. this is most welcome!
As the heading would suggest we are still under engine. its been 24hrs now. Mike has moved to the main saloon to get away from the noise! It is annoying given we made such fabulous progress initially. we could probably sail but only make 3-4kts in mostly the wrong direction. if we didn't have any time frames to work with then we may have elected to do that but we do need to be in this week to Las Palmas so that Mike and dad can get their flights and I can start to arrange the minor repairs required (roller furling and mast track). I hope to get away a week after we get into port and maybe just maybe go back to work to pay for the next step of the trip!! At this rate I'll be pulling pints down at my local to make ends meet.....
yesterday afternoon was frustrating with little breeze and what we had was directly astern forcing us to head more west than we wanted. Once we dropped all the sails and secured everything we were able to point down on our course with the hope that when the wind does fill in if we need to come up a bit to maintain a good speed then we have some room.
dad did a cracking sausage and mash dinner. the last of the fresh meat sausages and some "Smash" mash potato alongside some peas and carrots. he added in some onions and gravy which left us with a very nice evening meal. Well done Dad... the worlds most reluctant chef! I suppose each of us has challenges with something like this and Dads personal challenge is teh cooking aspect. so far he has done a great job!
it's 1125 now as i write this and we have 323nM to run. At 5kts that gets us in around 0300 on Thursday morning. Las Palmas is a big port and well lit but it si also busy so a night entry will be "fun" for me..... it's so much easier with a big radar set and TRANSAS chart displays and a bridge team to assist! on Gitana for this entry it will be a paper chart and a had bearing compass.
we all got showers yesterday which is a real luxury. with the engine running there is plenty of hot water and only 3 of us means the tanks of water afford us teh occasional indulgence. we haven't run thee water maker so far on this leg. we did a long "backflush" of teh system in Cascais so it can sit for a week or so without being run. I will run the preservative through it once we get into Las Palmas so it keeps pickled for the layup period through September and October and November. It seems odd to think she will sit idle now for several months once we get in. It's such a shame as the Canary Islands have some lovely cruising grounds.
I'm hoping my weather email gets sent today, annoying yesterday to try several times and not receive the reply with the GRIB file. I'll email mailasail my provider and ask what happened.
it's a bit grey today with occasional spots of rain.
Right then lets see what weather files are waiting for me and head onto my watch at midday.
All well on board and very much in the swing of the passage.
James, Mike, Des.