May 27, 2014April 18, 2015 Paul and Claire

The Dog’s Leg

Cruising

To sum up day’s 1,2 and 3 we have been navigating to wind on a close reach resulting in courses of 020, 040 and more recently 000. With so much north in our course we close the Azores by about 15 or 20 miles a day. The boat loves close reaching.

Initially we were in the trades and stonking along at 7.5kn but more recently we have been gliding at about 3.5 to 6kn on a flat blue sea under clear skies in about 10kn wind with a small swell. Below it’s 34 deg C in the day but cooler at nights; and the stars are amazing with a clear view of the Milky Way.

We have changed sails just 3 times for squalls over the 3 days but the most they have delivered is 15kn wind so it’s nothing like the dreadful ARC experience of 40+ kns every night.

Life aboard was a bit hard initially as the anchor locker drains to our central bilge. It’s a long story but the anchor chain cover on the foredeck got ripped off in Portugal so we were taking water through the anchor chain hawser as we bashed to windward and the bilge alarm was going off every hour. So we lift floorboards and switch on the pump but the alarm wakes up anyone who may be sleeping. (We are already on our second bilge pump as the new Jabsco Par-Max4 we fitted in Cadiz gave up after about 2 hours duty!). The new pump is another Jabsco (aaaaaagh monopolists!) but is a gulper. Have now replaced the anchor chain cover with cable ties and jammed the hawser pipe with plastic bags around the chain as a kind of deck seal.

Life is currently very comfortable. Generator stopped leaking oil for first time in 3 years (rocker gasket), got headsail furling, and the watermaker can fill a swimming pool so we are splashing away…..we leave you with a view of the past few days sunsets during which we always have happy hour. A nice cold softdrink which is much appreciated as these are rationed together with a snack. We have some devilishly hot Mexican salsa from St Martin which is fantastic.