11:31.58S 127:47.41E

Position at 1200, 29/07/07

We basically drifted through the night, sometimes making over 3 kts and sometimes just under. This morning around 0900 the wind died away to less than 5 kts (estimated of course) and so the motor went on. I’m writing this at 1700 and have been motoring since 0900, making around 5+/- kts. I hate to waste the fuel but as I said I really want to arrive whilst the Sail Indonesia guys are still in Kupang. I reckoned that I would arrive on Thu afternoon and so couldn’t have checked in until Fri 2^nd, which is the last day that the S.I people will be in Kupang. At this rate I should arrive Thu am and so possibly be able to check in the same day. The engine of course is up to it’s old tricks, running for several hours without a hitch then the revs drop off to idle for a minute or so, then after a couple of minutes things get back to normal for about an hour, then the cycle repeats itself. Maybe it’s an air leak in the system or something else but I can’t seem to track it down.

I’ve been buzzed once by a maritime patrol aircraft but they didn’t want to speak to me. Didn’t get VHF contact with anybody else this morning so I switched off the VHF to conserve battery power. I’ll try again tomorrow but I suspect the result will be the same.  I also have a more than sneaking suspicion that the alternator is not always delivering the goods so I need to be ‘amp-aware’.

I guess some of the Formula 1 merchants will have arrived by now whereas I had 280 odd miles to go to the anchorage at midday. Apart from the afore-mentioned problems all is going well but even copious amounts of curried beans don’t seem to be producing any wind!

http://amzn.com/B009QA33QIhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QA33QI

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QA33QI