In The Middle of Nowhere ~ Day 11 to the Marquesas
Balvenie
Mark Farrell & Amanda Church
Sat 1 Aug 2015 22:57
|
01 Augusut 2015
~ Position 05 19S 117 00W at 1730 UTC, 1130 Boat Time (Still on Galapagos
Local) 0530 tomorrow NZ Time.
Course Over Ground 255dT, Speed Over Ground
7.3 knots, 24 hour run 169 miles 1 mile less than
yesterday. Another cloudy night with more squalls overnight and this
morning, winds to 28 knots and a little rain, seas increased and swell running
about 3 metres, tiring 24 hours but skies now clearing and looking
promising. Still flying double reefed main, reefed jib poled to
windward.
Passed the half way point overnight, hard to
believe we have already been out here so long and we have only just made
halfway. I read on friends blogs and looking at the atlas seems to confirm
that this is the furthermost point on earth you can be from land,
not something our Mums probably want to know!!!
Bit of a set back overnight, our Ray Marine
Autopilot has decided that 1500 miles in one go is all he is prepared to steer
for and has developed a "Drivestop Error" and turns himself off. Mark has
spent the day bouncing up and down checking wiring, connections, reading manuals
etc but as yet Ray is still on strike, we have had this problem about 1 year ago
and Mark fixed it but the same solution hasn't worked this time. We do
have two autopilots so Arnie is now steering (actually right now Mark is
steering) but we still have a long way to go so want our backup
working.
A huge thanks to all of you that are
emailing us regulary with weather, news, sports news, family and friends news
and general chit chat, it truly makes our day and no matter how brief we
appreicate them immensely. So sorry we are not emailing many personal ones
out, maybe when (if) the sea flattens some more, we live in hope.
You can see our progress on a map on
our mailasail blog.
Position at 2300UTC when sent via satphone
05 21.69S 117 20.67W Not a cloud in the sky, 18 - 23
knots, hoping for a better night |