Today we exercised the engine. It was a blissful, stress-free day. Between the engine providing propulsion and Pi driving, out on watch tasks were minimal; watch for ships on AIS and the horizon, check radar for approaching squalls, watch for debris in water, watch the temperature gauge (really important! - yesterday we were motorsailing for twenty minutes and the engine overheated!) This is not the first time our engine has overheated while motor sailing, but coming in the heels of the auto pilot fiasco, it is most disturbing. We had the engine over heat in the same way on the entrance to Hydrographer’s channel in Australia. We should know by now that we cannot run the engine with the Genoa flying. Our theory is that the Genoa lifts the bow up, thus sending the stern down far enough into the water to prevent the exhaust from coming out. We never have a problem overheating when motor sailing with just the main, or with a combination of sails involving the main. Weird. Now Captain has decided he wants to have a look at the impellers on the water pumps. To do so requires the engine to be cool...not a task for this afternoon. We decide to motor without any sail up. The seas have flattened out considerably, the wind is just a zephyr teasing in the rig, and we enjoy not worrying about not being back winded or in danger of a unplanned gybe. We caught up on much needed sleep, did some reading; Lars stretching his mind with a Carl Sagan book, me escaping into James Clavell’s ‘Whirlwind’. In the afternoon we did a little catch and release fishing with a big fish that broke the leader on the hook, but thankfully didn’t take off with the purple lure. We ended up having chicken stew for supper, along with the last of Tony’s delectable sourdough bread. During supper, we watched a spectacular rain shower sweep across the sky in front of us, but it never came near us!
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