Blog 27. At Sea. 08.49.15S 125.03.39W

Alcedo
David Batten
Mon 14 Mar 2016 21:54
Monday, 14/03/16. Yesterday was another celebration day because we hit the 1000 nm to go. Yesterday was also an SHIT day, literally, as the Skipper and wife spent several hours clearing a large blockage in the outlet pipe of the aft heads. With the help of a gismo purchased at the Southampton Boat Show that can siphon off fluids, a rod made from a spare mainsail batten, a flexible rod made from some spare piping with a screwdriver taped to one end and some Pos Gas and Cillet Bang, success at last. The procedure made use of the whole crew. Skipper and wife in the heads, Anthony emptying buckets, contents best not examined too carefully, Ship's Boy on the helm and Jane preparing a lovely celebratory lunch. There will be more vicious chemicals going into the holding tank from now on and we will continue with the policy of nothing into the Loo that has not been through mouth first.

On to happier subjects, we have now had the Genoa poled out for nearly three days, including at night and it has proved very tolerant and a godsend in these variable winds and big seas. We are still ahead of the rest of the fleet and are hoping to be able to stay that way, but Spirit has warned us of much bigger squalls to come at night as we approach Hiva Oa. She sailed with reefed mainsail and no pole at night from about where we are now. She has reached Hiva Oa and tells us that the harbour is crowded with 9 yachts in the bay, so it will be challenging for all the WARC yachts to find space.

This morning is sunny and quite hot, we are approx 825nm from Hiva Oa and counting down to the 500nm mark. The wind is E to ESE and varying between 11 and 17 knots and our speed varies between 6.5 and 10 knots off the top of a wave, so providing quite a challenge for the person on the helm. 2 hours at a time is quite enough!

Alcedo

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