Saturday, May 4, 2013

Lots happening

We were able to keep the spi until 8 this morning when a warm front caught up with us. The squalls are full of heavy rain but no wind. We hurry to get the spi down and then go through the usual scenario of calm followed by a little wind in the wrong direction.
So we decide to move away from the front and recharge the batteries, using the engine for no more than two hours.
Well, after one hour, as we were enjoying lunch, high temperature alarm, and we run to stop the engine.
It appears that a lot of coolant has found its way into the bilge. As soon as the engine has cooled down enough, we look for a possible cause of leak and found nothing. Jean-Paul suggests that we check the valve to drain the coolant system. Took some time to find it, although there is a photo in the manual. Finally Jean-Paul found it, cracked open 1/8 of a turn. Since we cannot find anything else, we have to be satisfied with that explanation. We topped up the coolant, restarted the engine with Jean-Paul in the engine compartment, watching every where and found nothing wrong. Besides, the wind has come back and we can keep sailing for a while, managing our electric consumption the best we can and hoping that the solar panels and the wind generators will supply enough for our needs.
Tonight, we will again do sauteed potatoes, this time enhanced with some corned beef.
We should have wind for the next four days, sometimes a lttle too much, but nothing we can't manage.
At noon today, we were 31:03 N and 52:38 W. We still had 1265 miles to go to Horta. I now reckon that we might arrive on the 15th only.
Tonight, we will move the clock forward one hour to TU-3.


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