Grits to Crumpets: Hold Your Nose

July 15, 2013

Nani left Horta last Monday, and the news from the crew is that they don't expect landfall until next Monday or so. On the tracker this morning it looks like they put on the blinkers and turned right toward England!

I got a DeLorme message from Alex yesterday:

Hi K. Motoring today. Expect good wind mon or tues. 800 NM to Plymouth. Could be 8 days or more (less with good wind) . Will let you know. Head is working well now.
Luv A

Alicia got a long note from Bob, and as she prefaced it in her e-mail to me, if you get queasy or don't like reading about waste buckets from the holding tank, you may want to wait until after breakfast to read it! I edited it a bit for clarity since I know it must be hard to type down in the cabin while seasick.

From Bob via Alicia:

I'm going to try to type some, I felt really queasey yesterday, still a little today, my 3 days on the patch was up yesterday. It's frustrating that we have been at sea for 7 days and it still effects me.

Friday we couldn't pump the holding tank. Thought it was that rube goldberg electra scan device that shocks the crap out of crap so that it is clean when discharged, and we took hours to work on it to bypass that system. Job included hauling waste filled buckets and pouring overboard. Had to heat hoses with boiling water to pry the hoses off. Once those were off we had to plug it instantly or the holding tank would empty into the boat. That didn't fix it. So we had to take a handpump bilge pump and connect it to the deck waste pump and manually pump the entire holding tank over the side . (Alex pumped and Bob held the discharge hose). I felt like cousin Eddie in Lampoons Xmas Vacation when he pumped the head into the street drain. On Saturday Alex installed the spare mascerator that Cheryl brought to the Azores. Head works now but has a small leak.

Friday was frustrating with the head and also with slow progress. You probably noticed on the tracker that we sailed two sides of a triangle vs motoring across the hypotnus. After sailing an entire day we may have made 10 miles to destination. (We can't motor the entire trip.) Sailed again yesterday and did OK. Motoring now but we need to move to an area that the grib files show wind. The pilot charts that show where the wind comes from historically have been 100% wrong. Our weather grib download has been much closer. We've sailed 654 nm since azores with 1024 to go so you can see we are not making good time.

Friday night I saw thousands of jellyfish. They were so thick on the surface they looked like a blanket. No signs of any other animals or people since friday. Just a couple of birds. We did see a big cargo ship that passed about a mile away. The ship turned on their AIS that alerted us by setting off our AIS signal alarm before we could see him. They should keep it on all the time but it appears they only do it when they see us on radar. They see us on radar first because they are higher up. We've only seen three boats since the Azores. There is always excitment when we see them, it gives us something to see, do, and talk about.

I'm late for watch so got to go. Love B

Meanwhile, back at the cottage I had a wonderful weekend with good friends, with plenty of time for the beach and a little sightseeing.