Bloodbath!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 3 Oct 2011 19:01
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Monday 3rd October 1815 UTC 1915 BST
00:11.563S 018:05.077W
Wind: SE 15 knots, COG 291 Deg True, SOG
7.0Knots
The past 24 hours have been quite frustrating and I
was having to work hard to minimise the rolling and slatting of sails. However
forward momentum needs to be maintained and that is what i was working hard for.
There were several gybes put in and just at 0600
this morning when I had given up on any sleeping I put in another pointing us
directly at the Canaries!
Until the new weather information came in it was as
well to point home as anywhere else. Grib files are just over 6 hours behind so
after 0600 you get last night at midnight and so on. I had decided not to take
another file until after midday and continued to use and study yesterdays
forecast.
So far on the way up the Atlantic I have felt that
my game plan has worked out well and I have managed to get quite a few fruitful
gybes in at the right time.
The current plan is to sail NW and into the void of
the Doldrums. If I carried on further westand up the west of the Cape Verdes
then I could pick up stronger North easterly winds which would mean a really
tough upwind beat to the Canaries or sail hard on the wind reaching to teh
Azores. This would be the Spring or Summer option. However at this time of
year it is too risky to head right out into the middle of the Northern Atlantic
and its October Gales. Also I must stay to the east of the Cape Verdes to avoid
the new born hurricanes.
I see and I recall that there were often offshore
winds from Africa when nearer the coast. I can't however go too near the coast
because of my safety and security but it may be possible to squeeze up an inside
track between the NE trade winds and not being to close to the African coast.
That's my plan so for now it's NW to sail round the
worst of the calms, try to pick up some light reaching easterly winds (my
spinaker is still sitting on deck rigged and ready to go. When these winds run
out I will use the engine as required to get through the doldrums heading
directly north of the eastern side of the Cape Verdes. I then have a good chance
of a close reach North Easterly towards the Mauritanian coast then tack onto
Starboard to beat northish towards the Canaries. I feel there will also be
coastal winds to use there. That's the plan for now.....
Through the night last night for the third night in
succession the autopilot let go. This can be very dangerous when sailing to far
down wind. Twice I had been sleeping but luckily the senses are so honed any
change in noise or boat motion or speed is felt and i was able to dash for
the wheel befor ethe wind got round behind the main and burst the preventer.
This would cause th eboom to crash across and could be mast threatening but
certainly would be a great risk to the boom or at least the fittings and
hardware on it. I have already experienced this at night on the way to Fiji
and need to avaid it happening again.
So what could be the cause? The first couple of
times I figured it was just the course computer getting utterly confused
with the sloppy flukey wind and conditions. I have seen it give up when it
cannot make any sense of what's going on (I know the feeling!). The normal cause
would be low voltage........
Then I wondered. My voltage guage was reading 24.9
Volts and I have been very good at keeping the batteries topped up. But the
fridges were getting low voltage to them. I measured it - even when the guage
was showing a much higher voltage. So I wondered if the voltage was really as
the guage said. I put my theory to Discovery by e-mail and asked for the best
sequence and locations to test the voltage to home in on the problem.
They were back promptly and there underneath the
floorboards in a heavy load connection box I found the problem. One of the
supplies was only measuring 23 Volts. All other read 25 and the guage read 25V!
On closer inspection I could see that the heavy duty 200A in line fuse was
blue on one side and roasting hot.
Quickly away with the sails locked the wheels and
replaced the fuse. Bingo! 25V. I am not certain but i think being plugged into
shore power for so long in South Africa with my whole system at 28V, exposed a
poor connection and the additional resistance that gave caused the degradation
of the fuse connection without blowing it leading to higher resistance. A
virtuous cycle!
I am not sure
though obviously I am not an electrician and I await an answer from the
experts.
So ............. that meant I could undo my
temporary repairs the the fridge and freezer compressors which had them
working but at 60% speed.
I have been nursing them along keeping the voltage
high, and running the generator several times over the day including in the heat
of the midday to keep the compressors running.
Alas. I went to check the freezer and started
digging my way down into it to sort it out now that it was going to be back
to full power. Yes, alas.......
The bottom of the freezer was a veritable
bloodbath. Obviously some of th emeats had defrosted and leaked blood and meat
juice in to the freezer underneath the stuff that was still frozen or semi
frozen. Not one to waste anything I syphoned it out and drank it.
Just joking! Uurghh! Disgusting. I even had to
throw some of the stuff that was sitting in it over the side. I was
devastated. Oh well there are a lot of hungry people in Africa. Hopefully all
the fish can eat that stuff up and there will be more and bigger and stronger
fish for the west africans to eat - when they are not sending every business
in Europe e-mail offers and scams, offering to drop £10million in your
acount - if only you will send them the
details........
I rescued most of it though. I am now on a diet of
fillet steak for the next six meals, followed by two meals of sirloin steak then
two of wahoo. All this is the really dodgy stuff and has to happen in the next
three days. The marginal stuff which I figured is about 16 meals will probably
have to happen in the following few days.......
Don't worry though. I am cooking three meals at a
time. Everyday the food is tested. Tonight i am testing for breakfast and
breakfast I am testing for lunch. So hopefully that will limit things to
only one doze of the runs. Well ..... one per raw ingredient.
I tell you this if I don't get food
poisoning through this I can promise you it doesn't exist. It is just a
giant scam to keep Home Economics teachers and Tescos in business.
On the other hand if I do .......... well you can
see I am actually putting on weight on this trip so - maybe - well we'll
see.
I am currently only nine miles south of the
equator. Earlier today I was in shallow water - 1350 metres. In an hour or so I
will have 7,000 metres under the keel!
e-mail me with your food hygene tips and I promise
not to send you mine! rhiann {DOT} marie {CHANGE TO AT} gaelforce {DOT} net Yeah!
come on, get e-mailing - they're drying up a bit. I'm working hard here you
know. Show some appreciation!
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