Sunday 8th July: Land Ho!
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Sun 8 Jul 2012 13:03
But from about 3am it eased and the sky gradually cleared so we reverted to longer watches. It's now beautifully blue and the wind is a gentle F3, but as predicted from due north, ie dead ahead, so we are only making about 5 knots with full sails on a course about 30 degrees from our direct one. We will have to tack all today and tonight.
Svalbard is clearly visible as high mountains ahead, albeit they are still 80 miles away. The boat needs airing and so do we so we are grateful for the fine weather.
The survival suits work really well for deck watches during the "night" shift. However any kind of work in them produces a special kind of sweat bath as well as the bulk of the material getting in the way of the winch, the wheel, the loo door... Looking forward to making landfall and registering with the Sysselmann after which we get to meet the gun people and pick up our Mauser (30 06) plus a nice shiny flare gun all for the benefit of the bears. Hopefully we can blag some time on the range for weapons familiarisation. For the benefit of everyone else in Longyearbyen we're also hoping the showers are hot.
We regained contact with the UK via shortwave this morning having a successful conversation with Ice Station Hudson however there was not time to take an ice fax and we already had heard from Elisabeth that the ice is clear in the Isfjord. Jon if you pick this message up, we were suggesting another go at 8pm tonight, sorry about the confusion. We'll start to need the detailed ice forecasts in anger around next Friday once we get the crew here and set off northwards again.
James decided to start the engine since we will presumably need it tomorrow. This is not so simple because after a week unused in rough weather the diesel drains itself back from the engine filter to the tank (it's actually a design fault I'll rectify next winter: it did this both ways to the Azores and back, as well as in Scotland two years ago). The effect is that it won't start until the fuel system is bled, which involves:
i. getting a small jerry can of diesel (which needed filling via syphoning, so I now have a great smelling 'after-shave'),
ii. disconnecting the pipe from the primary filter and putting it in the jerry can,which is raised to the same level as the lift pump
iii. opening the bleed screw on the secondary fuel filter (to get at which one has to remove the air filter as well),
iv. twiddling the manual lift lever until the system is bled.
One can then start the engine (it started at once bless it), run it for a few minutes from the fuel in the small jerry can, then reconnect all pipes. Anyway, it's running fine now. Next winter I'll install an electric lift pump between the primary and secondary filters, which is what I think it should always have had.
Pictures will be posted soon once we get a wifi link in port.