Computation

Since last night when the wind dropped again and we had to start motoring, I live with a pocket calculator in my hands.
Between St Martin and Horta, we used the engine for 62 hours and had to refilled the tanks with 40.3 gallons in Horta. And this was with the engine at slow rpm, as we are doing now. That would give us a consumption of 0.65 gallons per hour, with a motor sailing speed of around 4 knots. That means we left with 138 hours of engine in the tanks. We have used already 20 hours, so we should be able to motor for another 118 hours, covering hopefulle 472 miles.
I had another look at the map and found that we were almost at that distance from Camaret, which has a fuel dock and is the closest stop on our way to Cherbourg. So we changed destination, but having in mind that should we get close enough without using the engine, we will keep either Cherbourg or St Peter of Guernsey as our fuelling stop.At noon, we were by 46:04.5 N and 15:46.8 W, 476 miles from Camaret. Right now, at 4 p.m. TU+1 time, we are 459 miles from Camaret, 556 from St Peter and 593 from Cherbourg.
St Peter and Cherbourg would be our preferred stops as they are on the direct route to Rouen.
Looking at the weather files is more depressing than ever. Apparently, there is a high pressure system forming NW of us, probably with the intention of blocking our access to the entrance of the Channel, same as when we got close to Horta, the Azores high did it best to block us. But we got there, same as we will get to Rouen.
By tomorrow night, we should have a much better idea as to whether we can go direct to St Peter or Cherbourg.


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