Day 13: Its still rock and roll for me
Last night we carried on rocking and rolling with the rhythm of the ocean.
We had very little wind and what was present carried on being fluky and
cyclonic. Our genoa flogged and beat a tune to the Gods of the heavens and
the sea. It asked for wind but its call went unheard. It was an
eerie night on watch. The sea was a glassy black with a hint of mist on
its surface. There were no clouds in sight and the heavens had a clarity
and brightness that lit up the night. The planets cast light trails on the
sea surface in random directions like the arms of a slightly quirky clock
Unsurprisingly at daybreak we had some more sail repair work needed to
secure the tape at the foot of the sail. We are using our mainsail with
care as we are having a problem with the tension in our vang. The
hydraulic system is loosing some pressure so we have rigged a second vang which
appears to be working well. This should see us through the remaining miles
under our belief that prevention is better than cure.
Today on board is fancy dress day. Cal chose the theme as ‘pirates’
and the creativity of the crew surfaced. Its amazing what a couple of tee
shirts, swim goggles, a spatula, a burnt cork and jubilee clips can do to the
attitudes and postures of some normally gentle men. I think Cal had been
inspired when he realised that we had some Guinness on board as a
sweetener. His famous words from last night ‘You never told me you had
Guinness on the boat’ Our reply ‘You never asked!’ One is chilling
for him. A fitting reward.
One of the other areas of LC that is proving to be rewarding and a blessing
is our water maker. When we brought LC in July we never tested the water
maker and took it on trust that it was working. It was a blow to find on
the journey from home to Las Palmas that it wasn't working. Dave is a
whizz at solving problems and he methodically went through everything with no
success. When he arrived in Las Palmas he asked for help from Rol Nautic
and the big wait began. We were given a comprehensive guide to water
makers from Derek on Ocean Blue, but even their combined brains produced no
result. Eventually we had a lucky contact provided by Carl on Nisidia and
Dave rang someone in the UK who by chance was having a meeting with experts from
Spectra that evening. Three weeks later, and two days before the ARC
start, the guys from Rol Nautic arrived and started to systematically work
through potential culprits. Reassuringly they did the same things that
Dave had done. They then took the membrane away, checked it and said it
was in good condition. They replaced the Clark pump to see if that was the
problem but it made no difference. A phone call came in from the UK at the
exact same time and they both said – ‘Its your sensor’. A synchronous
moment. Both sources said to disconnect the second sensor and bingo it started
working; and boy hasn't it been good to have one. Currently it would be my
desert island discs item. Fresh water, showers, clean clothes. What
a joy to be salt free for a few moments each day. Salt gets
everywhere. Into every nook and cranny. You sit on the deck and when
you get up you are encrusted with salt crystals. We did wonder about
scraping them up and marketing them to Fortnum and Mason under the name ‘Rock
bottom mid Atlantic salt’. We thought it would roll off the shelves!