The crew started the day tired this morning. A long night of constant rolling and pitching left the people trying to steal some slumber feeling like they were in the intensive cycle of an industrial washing machine. Sleep eluded most and energy levels took time to rise today.
Anyone who’s watched Jason and the Argonauts will remember that there’s a long history of mariners appealing to the heavens for assistance. Last night, on the graveyard shift, Paul was chatting to Orion and asked him to send us some fair winds - if it wasn’t too much trouble. As I write this we’ve been on a downwind leg at 8 knots, pointing directly at St. Lucia for the last 8 hours. Thank you Orion, and anyone else that helped!
If the conditions stay as they are we could be on this leg all the way to St. Lucia and arrive in about 8 days time. This thought spread a contagious grin around the faces of the crew. The current course is also a much smoother ride, so sleep looks like a serious possibility tonight - double jackpot.
“Jennie” remains the metaphorical fly in the ointment, still cutting out randomly with an oil pressure warning diagnostic signal. We’ve tried everything we can think of - we’ve even bypassed the oil pressure sensor and still she throws her toys out of the pram after anything between 5 to 85 minutes of seemingly smooth operation. How she manages to report an oil pressure warning when the line for the sensor is hardwired to earth is beyond me. For the mechanical engineers reading this, answers on a postcard in a bottle to the Atlantic please.
We’re being mindful to manage fuel and water supplies and don’t expect any issues. There’s still plenty of food in reserve - in fact there are even discussions of us opening a quayside diner in St. Lucia with the leftover supplies. Interestingly we should actually be able to sail faster at this stage. With the fuel, water, and food that we’ve used we must be half to three-quarters of a ton lighter, go NoStress go.
It’s been a good day today. We had a complex sail & rig change to do in big seas when we made our course alteration but the crew took their time and worked methodically and patiently together, taking any issues in their stride. Morale is high, and although the team’s faces are all tired every one of them is carrying a smile.
Thanks again to everyone who’s reading. Thinking of everyone back at home is one of the highlights of each day of our journey.
Love to all,
Alex & the NoStress Crew
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