Good evening,

 

Well, I think we were a bit premature with the title of yesterday’s blog. After we sent yesterday’s blog entry we had many hours of quite lovely sailing. Yesterday was the first time that neither of us experienced the slightest bit of nausea all day!

 

We were close hauled heading south, but with calm seas and a light wind. Just after breakfast the wind started to freshen and so we took in a reef, and then reefed again. By lunch time we were back under storm jib, though the wind had come round to a beam reach. Soon after that we made the decision to heave to as the winds were strengthening all the time. By early afternoon we were back to a Force 9, though the seas were a little bit smaller than last time. The wind continued to blow as the barometer fell all afternoon. As things started to ease up, visibility started to reduce till there was only a couple of hundred yards visible from the cockpit.

 

It is our practice everyday to check the bilges once a day as the fridge drains into it, and we try to mop the water out as best we can so that the boat stays as dry as we can keep her. Today when we opened up the bilge cover we could see red in the water. That turned about to be about a cup’s worth of diesel. In the rough seas, diesel had been leaking from the inspection hatch on top of the tank. We traced this problem and tightened up the screws of the hatch, which seems to have got on top of things.

 

Fortunately things are looking up now, and we plan to get under way soon

 

Hamsi