Starblazer - 11/03/2016 – I don’t want to complain but…

Thursday was even more frustrating than Wednesday! To be brief, it was our

lowest day’s run on this leg, 159 nM, and that was only achieved with the

help of the ‘metal wings’ or ‘iron topsail’. We did work hard at sailing

the boat including launching our colourful cruising chute once the breeze,

far too gentle to be called ‘wind’, veered to the east and onto our beam.

That gave us a little more speed but the saving factor was the current which

swept us along at 1.5 knots. Eventually we pulled it down and turned the

engine on when the boat speed dropped to 1.5 knots, making our SOG 3knots.



During the evening SSB net we turned the engine off and drifted for half an

hour, making a paltry 0.2 knots through the water! Unfortunately the

motoring penalty will hit our corrected finishing time quite hard though we

will not be the only boat with a number of motoring hours. We will try to

finish as close as possible to our predicted ETA, having given up all hopes

of an early Sunday finish. So long as we can average 6 knots we will

succeed, less than 6 knots will be an evening arrival or worse.



Anyone who was very surprised that we should be ahead of a very fast

catamaran like Makena, which overtook us on Wednesday, is quite right to be

astonished. I should explain, it wasn’t a case of Starblazer flying but

rather Makena giving the fleet a 24 hour start!



Life on board meanders on. The gentle winds have flattened the seas so

showers are a comfortable experience rather a gymnastic workout, trying to

maintain balance in unpredictably lurching conditions.



The change in weather also made it worthwhile doing some washing which I

hang on a short line strung across the transom, tied to the arch and the

backstay. It’s only long enough for 4 articles; the undies are pegged onto

a small rotary airer hung from the arch. It doesn’t make us look like a

determined racing boat, just a laidback cruiser which we are, though that

doesn’t mean that we don’t make an effort to be competitive!



(John) Our little Honda generator is soldiering on well, allowing us to

charge the batteries for lights, fridge, freezer, computers, hifi etc.. It

is replacing the still defunct Fischer Panda and uses a lot less fuel than

the main engine to do the job; 2 litres of petrol lasts 3 hours. It sits

out on the port quarter, lashed down, sometimes at a built in angle to the

deck to offset the angle of heel of the boat. The only protection from rain

and spray is an opened out plastic bag, used like a child’s rain hood. It

is not producing full power (1000W) and is noisier than it should be. To

keep it running and powering the battery charger John has had to reduce the

power output of the charger. Fortunately we have the interface to the

computer to adjust capacity and other settings with a PC. It will get a

very good service in Grenada, probably by a Honda agent.



More tomorrow, hopefully something more interesting.



Joyce