Tohuwabohu - leg 2 day 8/9

Yesterday was Tuesday, 1st December, 14 days before flight home, 24 days to do the remainder of any Christmas shopping. The wind dropped no we were completely becalmed which is another experience, so much ocean and no wind no waves, lots of sun. The best thing that we could do was take a mid ocean Atlantic swim.
With a tethered line sent out the stern of the boat and a fender attached to it to keep it buoyant, I took the first dunk, this was an experience, the water was very salty, however it was crystal blue and under the water it was the deepest blue colour I have ever seen. The temperature was like bath water, warm and not too hot. I have been told that the ocean is like a desert and there are vast areas of nothing. This is true because I didn’t see anything apart from a quick inspection of the hull and rudder. I spent a few minutes wallowing around and in fairness you can feel quite exposed, not in a bad way but there are thoughts of I wouldn’t like to be in a life raft! I was followed by Simone and then Holme taking in in turns to stay on the boat. Holger recounted a story of sailors who have swam and the boat has sailed away. I was sure this wasn’t going to happen. Everybody safely back on board and we decided hat we would charge the batteries run the watermaker, charge phones, I pads and fridges which means the engine would be run. We have 60 litres in the tank and 54 litres in cans, which is a total of about 4.5 days at 1600rpm. We motored for 22 hours overnight using every amp hour to its best advantage. (Also means showers the following day)
As we were motoring along Flock of white seagull type birds circled the boat, they were about the size of runner ducks, I’m not an ornithologist so I can tell you why they were but they were looking for a place to rest. They continued to circle the boat looking and using the wind to find the best way to approach, then landed the first of 10. And suddenly we had become a free ride west. The birds didn’t seem to mind that hey had committed an act of piracy and quickly began to eat, wash, and prune themselves to flight status. They then settled down for the long evening ahead without a care in the world.
Throughout the evening they had a nice ride and were left up disturbed by us to settle. We settled ourselves down into the 3x3x3 watch for the evening ahead beginning at 9 pm. After an unventilated hot evening the shifts were finished and the next day soon started.
The morning was a nice early start at 9 am UtC which I think is probably 6am local because the sun was just rising . Today we going to attempt to bleed the autopilot system. They is a serious of hydrolic hoses with bleed valves . After spending a few hours I can report that not a single thing has changed. still no auto pilot! There really isn’t a lot to be said, it worked for 20 years and then stopped.
I was more concerned with the lack of wind, the prediction from our reliable Mr John R says that the wind will drop into next weekend, this creates a small issue s we don’t have enough fuel for the distance to go. We also have provisions enough for a few days as extra but we didn’t overdo the cheese and brioche as I have done on other trips, one day we will get it right !
We have a plan on board and that’s the main thing , mine is to use the vhf to call a tanker that passes us by and ask to purchase diesel. The problem is I need a tanker to pass us , other than that I’m spent with ideas.
Anyway we have 6knots of wind and the code 0 is raise with a pole and the Genoa is poled out on the starboard side. We are still in the game and still moving forward. 860 nm to go. How you are enjoying the random ramblings of a transatlantic sailor (well nearly)