Tuesday 25th March
SAILING IS THE EASY BIT!
Passage making is easy! You just put up the white fluffy things, set the autopilot, look at the weather forecasts, trim or reef occasionally, check the course and keep watch! You just sail for days on end with the same sail plan and with steadyish winds.
The real skill is overcoming all the never ending mechanical and gear problems, as you progress! Malcy is a very experienced and very competent yachtsman (about 130,000 miles), but where he has few equals is his ability to fix things, which as an engineer was once his profession!
JB: Yes. over the last week or so it has become apparent that Quasar V is suffering a leak, of the salt-water variety, which is never a good sign. We have had to regularly empty the bilges, however, they just keep filling up again. When the water gets to a certain level in the bilges the automatic bilge pump kicks in and discharges the water. Malcolm was very much aware of the problem and has been aware of it for some time. He calls it the "elusive leak" as he just cannot ascertain where it comes from. The difficulty is that whilst in the past it has been a minor leak (some would say a nuisance dribble), it has been getting far worse in the last week, so he mounted a campaign of "Leak Seekers" today and this involved removing the companionway steps, unscrewing half the floorboards, emptying the bilges then drying out the bilges - which as you can imagine was a losing battle! - and trying to track down the leak. At times we would be poised on all fours, kneepads on, torches in hand, seacocks off, seacocks on, working out which direction the leak was coming from. On a boat pitching, yawing and rolling this is quite a challenge but after careful analysis, Malcolm concluded that the leak must be aft. By this time we were exhausted and hot but thankfully, Barry called "Time Out" and fed us with the most delicious pumpkin soup and tomato and basil bruchetta. This kicked us back in to life. Linds was sent to the aft cabin and within minutes spotted the leak, coming from the battery compartment, which had Malcy hotfooting it to the lazerette. The lazerette is at the back of the boat and is essentially a storage space for "boaty" things - I'll save you the detail but Malcy had to empty it all out and work out where the leak was coming from. Alas, it would appear that the leak is coming from the rudderstock, which Malcy will further investigate when we arrive at the Marquesas the day after tomorrow but it is likely that Quasar V will need to be hauled out of the water, but hopefully not till Australia!
With the leak having been found we then took another couple of hours putting the boat back together, floorboards back in, bunks back together, steps drilled back in, batteries checked ...those "boaty" things stowed back in to the lazerette, which is a krypton factor type feat as the things never seem to fit back in.
We were all exhausted particularly poor Malcy who masterminded the whole campaign in his usual tenacious and focused way, and whilst not feeling very well. Roberto cooked us a lovely supper of chicken a l'orange for our efforts and the night watches began!
The elusive leak eludes no more! (JB out)