Reasons to be cheerful.. day 5 - 21:11.330N 60:41.421W

Voyage of Wanderingstar
Ben Bonnick
Mon 16 Apr 2018 15:46
To be honest, it has taken a while for me to re-adjust to life on the ocean wave, but my spirits are up again as I’m readjusting to living like a primitive being again. The piss pot has made a welcome return. The boat is constantly at 30 degrees and I feel like the crocked old women living in her crocked house.

Reasons to be cheerful:

I'm actually making better progress than I expected, I knew when I left Antigua it would be rough conditions but I think it has paid off. I could easily have taken haven in Jolly Harbour on the west side of Antigua when I realised the bad conditions but if so I would probably still be there now. I had to seize the moment. The first few days have been tough and my spirits have been quite low.

Bilge water - this was causing me to fret, I kept finding large quantities of water in the bilge, pumped it out, and next day it was back again maybe 30 or 40 litres. I knew it couldn’t be from below water as in the past 10 weeks with the boat constantly in the water there has been no build up of bilge water and I had checked all the hull glands and cocks when she was out of the water a few weeks ago. It must be coming in from above the deck, but couldn’t work out from where. Before going to sleep last night I had a thought and decided to check it out first thing this morning. My hunch was right, as Wandering Star ploughs into each wave a shed load of sea water gets swept across the bows. The one area that I had not checked was the chain locker in the bow of the boat. Looked in there this morning and could see the source of the water. Thats fine, its not an issue, I know where its coming from. Not much I can do about it while I’m beating, I’ll just make sure I empty bilge each morning. I also have hand bilge pump if electric fails. My spirits were lifted.

Cut on foot - I cut my foot the day before leaving, not a bad cut but in an awkward place on the sole of my foot and side of leg. Whenever, I put pressure on it it hurts and has been a constant cause of irritation. Yesterday I put some heavy soaks to protect it and it not caused a problem since. My spirits have been lifted further.

Progress - I have been concerned that Wandering Star would not sail well into wind and that I would end up going further north than I had hoped. If I can keep below lat of 35 degrees before reaching the Azores then I should be able to keep out of the most server of any storms. But this would need me to sail close to the wind. My first day seemed to prove my fears as Wandering Star would not sail into wind, all I could manage was 90 degrees to the wind. I switched from using the tiller self steering to the wind vane and that seems to resolved the issue. I think its because the self steering wind vane steers to the wind and therefore allows the constant small adjustment required when sailing close to wind, while the tiller self steering works to compass. My spirits lifted still further.

AIS - I have been fretting that the plotter does not seem to recognise the AIS, it did but it doesn’t now - it shows it as not switched on. I have checked the AIS and its working well and all the lights are on and it is sending signals so that other shipping can seen me. I remembered yesterday that this happened before and unless the AIS is actually picking up VHF signals from another vessel as far as the plotter is concerned it turned off. As soon as another vessel comes into range it wakes up and shows the ship on the plotter screen. Shipping in these parts is actually very remote so its unlikely to pick up any signals until closer to the Azores. Note - you wont see me on Marine traffic now as I’m out of range of shore based VHF signals.                

Charging - on Saturday the engine wouldn’t start as there was not enough power in the batteries to turn it over. I have an emergency power pack so was able to start engine. Previously I had run the engine 1 hour in the morning and  1 hour in the evening which kept the batteries charged with the help of the solar panel. On this trip I thought I would reduce engine running to 1/2 hour morning and evening which was clearly not enough. Yesterday I reverted back to the 1 hr in morning and 1 hr in evening and engine started up first time this morning.

Windspeed indicator - my electrical wind spend and direction indictor is not working. I don’t have an answer for this one yet, but I have confirmed power is getting to it so ill play around with it but I have manual back-up for speed (a hand held indicator) and as it happens I fitted a simple wind vane on top of the mast before I left Antigua so can see direction.

All in all I'm in good spirits, looking at my speed and bearing right now I’m doing 4.4 knots bearing 002 which is a too far north for me so will see if I can bring Wandering Star round a bit, which will reduce my speed but I can afford to bring my 4.4 down to 4.

I haven't listened to any music so far on this voyage…..but just maybe I’ll put a bit of cold play on later …..

Aye
Ben