(Blog 34) Fastest day
Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Sat 4 Dec 2010 18:43
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17:16.37N 32:13.78W
Saturday 4th December (Day 13)
Noon Position: 17 deg 16'N 32 deg
14'N
Daily Run: 131'
Average Speed: 5.46 Knots
Total Average Speed: 4.57 Knots
Total Distance covered: 1431'
Distance to go: 1671'
Number of engine hours motored: 36.5 hours
ETA St.Lucia: Saturday 18th
@ 1100hrs (Based on 5 knots)
Thought for the day: "Sunshine is worth 2 points
on the Beaufort scale" - so says my old friend Jim Hassall. It's very true
and all sailors will appreciate the comment.
Sorry, I numbered the last blog as No.32 and it
should have been No.33. So this is No.34. I have added to
the daily data (above) the number hours that we have motored with
engine. Until 4 nights ago we had
done less than 1 hours motoring on the whole journey. We now
discover that many have been using their engines far more than us! (some even
called into Cape Verde islands to re-fuel when we had only done 0.6 of 1 hour in
the first 9 days!)
The fast sail that I mentioned in last blog
continued for 24 hours. The wind was still from the wrong
direction (SSW'ly -and it should be opposite at NE'ly!) but we were able to
make our correct westerly course on a fast and close haul sail.
This means that you are really bashing into it with spray and water over the
bow. All hatches and windows shut, so it's sticky and humid below - so we
all stay in cockpit for as long as possible, other than for sleeping. The sail
gave us our best day's run of 133 miles at an average of just over 5 1/2 knots(
That's the speed that I had based the whole trip on, when working out our
original ETA - and this is the first day that we have achieved it). Anyway, it
lifted the spirits.
Ben heard from his wife Lucinda yesterday. She said that
Ben's mother rang from New Zealand and said that she is reading the blog each
morning. Thank you Linda and Bob 'down under' in Auckland, and I'm really
glad to hear that someone is reading it! Ben is a great guy to have on board,
and he's a good cook (and baker) too. He's great company and listens
diligently to all my old stories! Love from 'The weed-whacker man'. Lucinda +
children, and her parents Nigel and Helen, and sister Caroline are all flying to
St. Lucia today (Saturday) for a 2 week holiday. The plan is to meet us on
arrival. It's really marginal if we will make it - but rest assured we are
really trying for an arrival on 17th Dec. If we can maintain 5 knots, we will do
it, but we need these winds to go around (which they really are now forecast to
do in next 36 hours). Nigel, Helen and Caroline fly home on 18th Dec,
and Lucinda is staying on for a few days hols with Ben and the children.
Our other friends Brian & Pam are flying out to join us on 17th Dec for 2
weeks. We hope we will arrive to meet you all together on the
pontoon! Actually, an old St. Lucian friend, Mike lives at Rodney Bay and
has said that he will take everyone out on his boat to meet us off the north of
the island - which would be really fun. Promise we are really trying
hard! Just hope we don't arrive in middle of the night.
A task yesterday was to find some pork at the
bottom of the fridge. It's very deep, and Sylvie has everything neatly
packed in plastic cartons, She isn't tall enough to reach down inside, so I have
the task of pulling it all out. (I'm worried, that if she tries I might she her
feet disappear down into the fridge - ha! Ha!). Out it all had to
come. While I was at it, I thought that I would break off the ever-
thickening ice forming on the surface of the evaporator with a chisel. As I
did it carefully a surprisingly large chunk came off - so an idea -
I decided to leave the rest for our evening Gin & Tonic - and surprise
Ben with some ice. He was most impressed at 6pm when I handed him his
glass with large chunks of ice in it. However, the ice turned out to be
somewhat tainted from the fridge - Gin & Tonic with a dash of pork and bacon
flavor - maybe not again thanks!
We are currently having an electrical charging
problem with the 'new' external alternator regulator. I
discovered yesterday morning, that with even the master battery switch off,
the batteries were draining 2.5 amps! Bad news!. I located the
power drain to the ext regulator and switched it over to the internal alternator
regulator - which seems to be OK and we are no longer losing power
- and it seems to be charging with the engine running OK. Fingers
crossed. I have an e-mail going out to the chap who installed it to see if
he can throw any light in the matter.
Back tomorrow with more tales from the North
Atlantic. Best wishes. Ben, Sylvie and Paul aboard Catou.
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