Saturday 19th 19:25
The Adventures of Tin Man
Andy Topp & Steve Arnold
Sat 19 Aug 2023 18:25
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42:48.02N
009:33.2W what three words - slobber.empiric.breather
We left A Coruna early this morning and got under way by
motor. The remains of yesterdays storm are present in the swell of the sea if
not in the weather itself as we have coupled beautiful sunshine with no wind and
quite large rolling waves. Hoping that settles down soon and the wind picks up.
It had been a bit of an uneventful day but then in the
space of an hour the bilge pump (which pumps water out of the bottom of the
boat) stopped working - which is somewhat of an issue. Fortunately we have three
alternatives two of which are manual and one is an emergency electric back up.
In itself this isn't much of an issue as we get very little water in the bilge
but it now means we have to manually pump it out instead of just flicking a
switch. It also means we have another thing to add to our list of things to do
once we arrive in Gran Canaria.
Whilst dealing with the bilge pump issue and trying to
figure out what the problem was we heard a Pan Pan go out over the radio. A Pan
Pan is like a Mayday but it's not as serious. It means "we are in trouble but
it's not threatening to life or vessel". The cause of the Pan Pan was an Orca
interaction with a sail boat. We monitored it closely over the VHF and
unfortunately the Pan Pan was upgraded to a Mayday as the Orcas started to
attack the boat (a spanish flagged yacht called Rem). The attack location is
about 40 miles south east of our location close to the coast line. Our passage
will take us within 35 miles of the location so we are quite far away and should
be fine but out of an abundance of caution we have turned 10 degrees to the west
to put a bit more distance between us and them and get us into deeper waters. We
are positioned directly over a huge underwater cliff edge so our depth has gone
from aorund 160 metres and will be well over 2,000 metres very soon. This should
hopefully calm the sea down a bit too.
Andy and Will are currently rustling up some Padron
Peppers to start our dinner, followed by Jamaican Jerk Chicken Stew with Rice
and peas. We aren't in the Caribbean yet but we are getting in the mood.
Steve
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