Free Spirit - Log3: 12 May 2015
Michael has almost fully recovered - seas
very rough today so, very sensibly, he is staying on deck.
A strange thing happened the night before last.
A loud growling noise was heard somewhere deep in the bow sounding like a
tortured animal. We quickly ruled out an attack by some unknown monster of
the deep and came to the conclusion that a machine was being tortured
rather than an animal, but what and by whom?? The bow thruster is the only
machine located in that part of the boat beneath the berth in the forward
cabin. The noise was not the normal noise made by the bow thruster and
certainly nobody had switched it on in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
However, cutting its circuit breaker silenced its agonies and the bow
thruster was therefore clearly the source. Next morning we exposed it in its
lair beneath the berth and discovered the cause of its agonies. The
compartment in which it was housed was full of water submerging not only the bow
thruster itself but also the batteries that power it and the anchor windlass.
Reader do not panic! Free Spirit is definitely not sinking. Further
investigation revealed that the anchor locker, forward of the bow thruster
compartment was also full of water. Water normally accumulates here and
is pumped out by a sump pump into the bilges
and then back into the sea. For some reason the sump pump has stopped working
and water is running along cables to flood the adjacent bow thruster compartment
shorting the starter circuit. We pumped out the compartment yesterday and when
everything has dried out we will see what still works and what does not. The
forward cabin cannot be used for sleeping in the meantime, but the settees in
the saloon make very acceptable substitute beds.
It is getting colder - not cold as in English cold
but perceptively cooler. Today the sky is overcast with frequent heavy showers
and very big waves once more crashing on the foredeck. However, we are well over
half way to Bermuda with the promise of kinder atmospheric conditions to come.
We celebrated crossing the halfway point at dinner yesterday evening with a
glass of (non-alcoholic) bubbly. So everyone is in good spirits.
Log authored by
Peter.
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