On passage to Mauritius

Wandering Dream
Steve Litson
Fri 23 Oct 2015 04:38

 
Friday 23rd October 2015
 
19:21:2S 063:06:7E
 
Technical Bit - Main Winches
Both primary winches, despite being serviced in Cairns have jammed their pawls, the ratchet which takes the strain of the rope from the sail. One is intermittent the other completely. With several tons of strain from the sail on those sheets/ropes this is dangerous to hold on or use a winch handle. Unfortunately the small bits inside mean, it isn’t a job to do at sea. We have therefore moved to the secondary winches, which means man-handling the ghoster sheets and preventer lines.
 
Fishing
Tony hooked a big one this morning, the stainless steel line flew off the reel and jammed and snapped as it got to the join with the nylon line. Both line, lucky lure and hook gone. We re-rigged the rod. Denis hooked a good size mahi mahi, we were just trying to land it, when the hook came off the line. Re-rigged again, the next one hooked is mine....will I fair any better?
 
Dull and Dreary
It is still warm, but last night and today we have had one rain shower after another.
 
Rodrigues Island
We are now about twenty miles north of Rodrigues Island with light following winds. It is too early to be sure whether we will make landfall in Mauritius Sunday evening or Monday morning.
 
Miles travelled in the last 24 hours: 158 miles
Miles to Mauritius: 403