Position 23:05.20N 019:42.05W

 

Midnight comes, and the princess goes home – in this case the princess is the wind.  Steadily reduced, and at 03.00 the engine came on, and stayed on until 09.25.

During the Night Toby and Nadine saw a pod of pygmy dolphins – hopefully they will return.

 

At least the sea is calm, and the sun is shining, and we are now making 5.2 Kn in 8 knots of breeze.

 

All this made me philosophizel about the use of scarce resources:  diesel, water,  electricity, gas and food.  The latter two should not become scarce (I hope);  expected to use one, maybe one and a half gas bottles on the crossing.  Boat comes with two, on reflection I bought a spare, and then at the last minute, after hearing of the culinary delights promised us by Nadine and Andre, bought another.  Food is also not an issue, and should not be providing we arrive somewhere near the anticipated date.  But the other 3 are real issues, and we are doing some gentle balancing.

While there is wind we have no issue, the hydrogenerator produces electricity in abundance to run the watermaker as needed, and the engine is not needed.  But with limited wind it is more complicated.  Running the engine at 1500 rpm is giving us 4.8 Kn, and at this speed, according to the charts, we have fuel for in excess of 80 hours.  The engine is also producing electricity in abundance, but we cannot run the watermaker, as it uses the same water intake as the engine, and Yanmar sucks it away from Katadyn.  But running the engine gives us hot water, so showers and washing become desirable indulgences.  So we then need just enough wind to give us a steady boat, so we can shut off the engine, and run the watermaker or a few hours, then recharge batteries with the engine, and the  run the watermaker again.  So that’s what we are doing.  WAIT – Nadine tels me we are up to 6 knots – back to the hydrogenerator!