Hello,
We broke up our many hours of motoring today with a three-hour sail this morning when our winds built to 6 to 10 kts. It was nice to be reminded how well Fluenta sails in light airs, especially with new bottom paint and minimal seastate. It still looks like we will be motoring until sometime tomorrow, but that we have made enough northward progress that we can start sailing as soon as the wind fills in (even if we are slow) rather than waiting until we can maintain our average of 5.5 kts. This probably equates to sailing in 6-7 kts of wind, rather than waiting for 8-10+ kts we have needed with the wind so far aft and to keep up the average speeds required to keep ahead of the forecast unpleasant winds. All the kids migrated downstairs, and it was lovely to spend some time in the cockpit, actually sailing Fluenta together, the light winds necessitating regular trimming and course changes to keep the sails drawing.
It was Father's Day in this timezone, so we celebrated Max with brunch in the morning and maintenance in the afternoon :) Fried eggs and French Toast were on the menu, along with some of the maple syrup my dad brought us from Canada.
After lunch Max found a minor diesel leak in the engine compartment while doing engine checks; I looked up from my off-watch snooze in the aft bunk to see him crouched on the galley floor with a roll of Rescue Tape in his hands, and knew that something was up. There was a minor leak at another injector on the engine side (similar to the problem we had in Noumea, but in a different location) and we will deal with it further in Tonga. For now it is taped. [Lessons learned in the past from compression fittings - it is tempting to tighten it "just a little more" but they are easy to overtighten resulting in a worse leak. I have the correct spare so I will fix it when safely at anchor. Max]
Our fridge continues to operate in a very manual mode: we open the engine compartment panel, lash a fan next to the high pressure cutoff, run the water pump using an auxiliary switch we installed (ie without the compressor) and once the whole thing seems cold enough, push the overpressure reset button, and the system whirs to life. We run it for a long while (90 minutes) and repeat the process on the next watch. On the bright side, we have cooling, and our fridge full of meat is at a record -11 degrees and even the top layer is frozen solid. [for the folks that are worried it the compressor itself overpressuring, the big compressor never actually runs in this scenario but rather the refrigerant gets warm sitting statically in the engine compartment which increases its pressure and the overpressure cut off switch opens the electrical power circuit to the compressor stopping it even starting. The system is water cooled so once it is running the engine compartment temperature is not an issue. Max]
Max and Johnathan further cemented their father-son relationship today by transferring the last of the diesel from our jerry cans into our main tanks. I was off-watch, but I understand that they got most of it in the tanks and only some of it on Johnathan :) Given the calm seastate, you can imagine that he was thrilled with the 'opportunity' to take a squirt-bottle shower when they were finished. [Aside: this is a trick we inspired by our friends on NAUTILUS a few years ago - we boil the kettle, but a little water in the bottom of a ketchup bottle, fill the rest with tap water, and shower. We get 'clean enough' with only a few bottles each, and it is easier than using the furnace or the generator to heat our domestic tank. The heat exchanger to restore our ability to heat our water tank when we run the engine is already on our "Phase 2" list for the heater installation; it just didn't make the cut when we ordered the rest of the system from the US earlier in the year.
Victoria has been documenting our position every day at noon, so today she took advantage of the calm conditions to transfer all the marks to the chart. It was a good learning opportunity (that few North American students get) to use a chart on which the date line (180 meridian) runs up the middle: she learned that East and West are important distinctions, as the first time she drew all the dots they didn't actually form a straight line. It wasn't long before she had all our daily positions accurately marked. Our sextant hasn't quite made it out of the cupboard in quite awhile, there is always tomorrow ... or the next passage ...
Once again, we are motoring under a clear starry night. The winds are gusting to 2 kts. In a few days, this location will see 20-30 kts, with commensurate seastate, so I am delighted that we have a reliable engine to take us through these calms, and on Father's Day especially, that my kids have a dad who keeps all the systems going (and that Max and I have dads who inspire us and support us as we take this journey with our children).
Big hugs to everyone at home on Father's Day,
Love,
Elizabeth
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At 2018-06-06 1:41 PM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 27°01.17'S 178°49.86'W
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