Walloped again
X86
Rich Carey
Thu 1 Mar 2018 16:18
With Karen traveling to the UK (currently snow stuck in Manchester), and dogo potentially delayed on his flight today (with unknown consequences), us of the ocean are obligated to also 'drama up'.
After the days delay due to the broken Raw water strainer, we headed off yestertag, into increasingly light winds, expecting a long passage on engines (one at a time). Last night at dark o clock, I was on watch with the Port engine doing the work, and 'Bang/Silence'. Well we know what that is right off the bat ... 'Prop wrap'! Bummer. Picked up a large piece of commercial fish netting. Not the flimsy stuff - this is tough thick heavy duty nylon rope. Nothing to be done over night, except hack off the excessive trail of netting I could reach, and then run 9 hours on the starboard engine. This morning I went for a swim, and it's a right old mess down under. Prop wrap is common and I've had at least half a dozen underwater sessions sawing crap off with a bread knife (best tool for the job). However at the moment it's impossible to remove, because of the swell. You need both hands, and when the boat is moving around, you get routinely wellied on the bonce. Even if I don the sub aqua kit, it's too difficult/dangerous in 1.5 meters of swell, as this mess will likely require a good half hour of sawing and unwinding. So it's sail and starboard engine ho, for now. Currently we're managing to sail at 5-6 knots so saving fuel and engine for night running where we have to strongly reef due to the squals. Earlier last night we were getting 'squalled' by some big wet uns, and saw 30 knot gusts a few times. Nothing we couldn't easily handle.
This trip was an optimistic 4-5 days, a more realistic 5-6 days, a now likely 6-7 days.
All's well on x86, because no danger, although situation is major pain in the buttinski.
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