Thursday 8/12/11 – Blowing Bubbles? – 14:13.0N 56:18.4W

It is a strange existence, sailing like this. We live in a sort of travel bubble, with a horizon of around 10 square miles, due to the swell and the surface haze. Visibility often appears good, with clear skies above, but when you can only see the ghostly superstructure of a 500 foot tanker 6 miles off, you realise that the clarity is an illusion. It is only occasionally that a yacht’s lights or a large ship intrude into the space that we inhabit. Our bubble, however, does have sea creatures: dolphins and whales, birds such as today’s swallow-like aviator  whose distance from land astonishes, fish of all sorts that plop, fly or hook themselves on Martin’s lure (alternatively they take it for a memento, so we might have none left when we dock – he did land a large barracuda today though!).

You settle into a rhythm that begins to seem normal, when it is anything but. The night watches, the hectic sail changes, the checks and the rituals. We are well onto our 3^rd week of this suspended reality, and have developed strategies and routines to cope. We have good food and refreshment, company and comfort; we enjoy the silence broken only by the sound of the sea rushing past the hull and the “swoosh” of the swell as it overtakes us (and Robbie Robertson on the hi-fi!).

There are also extraordinary highlights that we are privileged to witness. This evening, we saw the most fantastic sunset, with ripples of red and orange reflected across the cloud formations towards the sunset, unimpeded by land and hills, as far as the eye could see to the west. Turning in the other direction, the moon was peeking through the clouds to send shimmers of tinsel reflections on the surface of the swell as it ran downhill towards us. Who wants it to end? (not Moitissier apparently, and maybe we understand him better now)

Weather and Progress

The weather watchers amongst you will know that the sights we saw this evening are indicative of poor sailing weather, and indeed we are motoring. We managed a few hours of slow sailing today, before the winds disappeared to leave us pretty well becalmed. Sails down and engine on, since we are stuck at the bottom end of a trough that is moving slowly westwards with us. We will have another night of this before we get the trades re-established to waft us into St Lucia - <400 miles to go.

The conditions have affected most of the yachts now closing St Lucia, of whom many have had to motor the last 100 or so miles. With 40 boats behind us this morning, at least we are going to be last in….

Kit Corner - Electrics

(This is boring, so will truncate. Happy to expand in another space, if anyone is interested)

Generator

We have an inverter based boat, so opted for a Fischer Panda 5000 AGT dc generator. It is a compact and sophisticated piece of kit, but is based on a very reliable Kubota 2 cylinder diesel engine that works like a Trojan. It took a bit of time to gauge how best to use it, and what might go wrong, but it is excellent. You do need to carry appropriate spares beyond the usual engine filters etc – it is controlled by relays, which you will not find in a wet and windy Wick. It would be wise to fit a “run dry” impeller (sold by Speedseal now) since the water pump is a thirsty beast and shreds rubber instantaneously if not lubricated (and dismantling the heat exchanger to extract the bits requires the assistance of zen). We also carry a spare diesel pump since one died on us, though they are supposed to be robust. Fischer Panda UK provides good after sales support, and their spares man Dave is superb.  9/10

Victron

The boat’s electrical hardware is largely Victron, and we think it performs well. The isolation transformer and inverter chargers have never given us a problem. We changed our original wet acid batteries for 4 Victron 150 Ah AGM units, which have been perfect, though we chose an Optima spiral AGM for the engine battery.

The original specification for the boat had a clever Victron VE Net panel that controlled the system and provided battery and usage information. Very smart it is too, but we found it unreliable, and when you lost connection (via Cat 5 cables and plugs), the system shut down. Two years in, we had a manual Victron switch fitted (Inverter, Off, Charger Only), and have had no difficulty since. Sometimes you need to keep things simple at sea! 9/10 now.

Ship’s Stores

 These are lasting remarkably well, bran flakes and fresh fruit notwithstanding. The freezer has been a god send, making it easy to defrost another excellent meal. The extra portable fridge has kept lots of meat and fruit palatable long after it ought to have died. Picking over the fruit and vegetables regularly means the fish are well fed too, but we are still enjoying apples and oranges, cabbages and potatoes from Las Palmas, supplemented by frozen and canned vegetables. Shame the grapes are finished as they have kept brilliantly.

The crew will not arrive with scurvy, malnourished and thrawn, even if their belts have been tightened a little!

Watergaw