The evening's grib file indicated another 24 hours of difficulty with weak and confused winds. The winds were much better below 30S, still 1.5 degrees away. As with the previous day (or any day, for that matter) I would play whatever winds that came along and try to keep moving south.
The weather fax showed that I was under a dashed line passing between two highs, which I think represented a trough. At least I didn't have an organized low chasing me around.
I woke up to see blue sky through the hatch. The boat was riding very calmly, with no spasms of ferocious rolling. Outside the sky was in two halves: above me and to the south it was relatively clear with perhaps 40% cloud cover, and to the south it looked nasty with heavy grey rain bearing overcast. There was no hope of sailing against the wind of 6 kt from the SSE. The house bank was down to 12.1 V so I ran the engine for just over an hour and did some trials where I recorded the amps and voltage at various rpms. This was a followup to work I had done the day before in regard to the problem I've been experiencing with lower than expected amperages from the alternator. I had tracked down some cabling and produced what I think was an accurate description of the boat's battery charging setup. I've been sending this information to Mark Jochems of Shoreline Marine Diesel in Port Townsend, who has been extremely supportive with analysis and advice in the quest to find a solution.
After the rpm trials I decided to take advantage of the calm and dry situation to top up the diesel fuel tanks, which would take them to a known state from which I would be able to calculate the rate of fuel consumption. The procedure was not as simple and quick as it may sound. First I had to untie one of the containers and drag it along the side deck and into the cockpit. I chose one of the big 23 liter containers because of the calm conditions. I wore my harness, but falling overboard was not a worry because in the calm conditions I would be able to swim rings around the boat then climb up the Monitor wind steering frame at the stern. Then I had to clear the cockpit sole of the chaotic looking mass of ropes. This was to avoid contaminating the ropes if I there was a major diesel spill in the cockpit. I coiled the four sheets, two runners, and the furler line around the winches. I put the three halyards, four reefing lines and the traveler lines on the front seat. Then I retrieved the Baja filter from its privileged storage location in the company of two sextants, the sail and Zodiac repair kits, etc. Then I got the brand new red bucket and scrupulously cleaned it with methylated spirits on a paper towel. I brought the bucket along with paper towels and the tool for loosening the diesel fillers into the cockpit then stripped for action, which was not a problem because of the bright sun and weak breeze. With the Baja filter in the filler I began pouring about 5 liters at a time from the jerry can, using its spout, into the bucket, then emptying the bucket into the Baja filter. This worked very well, though patience was needed for pouring from the bucket into the Baja filter in the roll of the boat without spillage. After the refueling everything had to be cleaned and put back. I then washed the back seat and back of the cockpit sole with soapy sea water, rinsed the lot, then gave myself a salt water bath because I had been sitting on diesel and it was all over my legs. This of course further cleaned the cockpit sole. I dried off, put on a clean set of underclothes, then put out the noon report.
My best estimate is that I put in 15 liters of diesel to bring the fuel level up to the brim of the tanks. The diesel tanks were full on 9 Nov at 113.3 engine hours. I had put in an estimated 42 liters to bring the tanks to full on 7 Dec at 144.0 engine hours. From this I calculated a fuel consumption of only 1.37 liters per hour, which isn't surprising because most of those hours were run at 1100 rpm.
I did a quick survey and came up with an estimate of 29 gallons (110 liters) on deck, giving me, according to my calculations, another 80 hours of engine time before I began to use the 140 liters of diesel remaining in the internal tanks.
Our noon position was 28S38, 123W33, giving us a n-n distance of 64 miles to the SW. Thanks to that unexpected bout of wind we had managed to move exactly one degree to the south.
After the noon report I attended to the boat because I had noted that the wind was rising. I lined up the boat off the wind, port tack, rolled out some headsail, then engaged Jeff. We began to move nicely to the SE at 2.0 knots. Not long after that I decided to try the mainsail and I discovered a new snag for the main halyard. There are cheek blocks on either side of the mast above the first cross tree for the lazy jack lines that are no longer there. Because the lines no longer go through the block the main halyard can pass behind the blocks and get snagged. I climbed up to the first cross tree to free it up but with the new platform above the life raft and the absence of the stack pack, climbing up the mast is now a piece of cake. I know how to fix that problem, and will do it on a calm day.
Anyway, I put up the mainsail with only one reef and soon we were moving nicely to the SW at 4.2 knots. I surveyed the whole scene and thought to myself that putting anxieties about the future wind and Horn schedule aside, it was a splendid day for sailing, with the calm blue sea, moderate breeze with just a hint of coolness in it, under a bright sun with friendly puffy clouds scattered here and there. Dare I say it? I was having fun sailing.
In the afternoon I became re acquainted with my Sony DCR-SX41 "Handycam" video recorder. I needed help so I loaded the manual into the laptop and had a quick read of it. The recorder was so dead that I had to set the date, time, and language. I made a couple of recordings from the cockpit and other than the wind noise affecting the microphone they came out OK. I downloaded the recordings to the laptop and deleted everything from the Sony recorder to have it ready at full capacity.
At 7 PM we were still moving SSW at 4 knots as we crossed latitude 29S. It had been a very pleasant day of sailing. The wind had behaved itself with a steady 9-11 knots taking us between S and SSE and the sky had remained generally clear. The boat had ambled along peacefully and the solar panels had been active all day, making a big difference in this night's house bank voltage.
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1 comment:
happiness is a full battery bank and a steady wind....a bit of sun helps lol ,just a thought do you occasionally run your diesel at higher rev's to clear your outlets?
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