Hello there.... Not much happening out here in the middle of the South Atlantic over the last 2 days evidenced by us seeing no ships or AIS signals. I even decided to call on vhf channel 16 asking if anyone could hear me.... Nothing, Nada, Crickets..... I know we have about a 30 to 40 mile reach on vhf, so definitely nothing out there I concluded :)
At 7.16pm on 1/14/18 (SA time GMT +2) we are at 21 deg 06' S and 002 deg 57 E. You can see we are only 2 degrees now East of the date line and soon will pass into the Western hemisphere. Time to change our clocks probably to St. Helena time which is UTC normally but in summer I believe they use UTC +1.
We have 580 miles remaining to St Helena. On a COG of 305 deg and BTW is 301 deg. Wind speed varies from 12 to 20 knots now predominantly from SE vs the SSE. Currently 17 knots and our SOG is 7.5 to 8 knots. Seas a little bumpier for some reason at 1 to 1.5 meters.
We enjoyed some sunshine yesterday but today started off a little overcast and luckily turned sunny again this afternoon.
For Sunday breakfast Guds made late morning scones :) The morning was spent reading, while this afternoon we had popcorn and watched 3 episodes of Seinfeld, including the famous Soup Nazi episode :) So for dinner tonight we had soup... and yes Guds allowed us each a bowl of soup with no antics!
Life continues at a slow pace out here.... Tracked down one annoying squeak and cured that with some WD40, did a rig and boat inspection and found 1 safety ring missing in a pin holding the top starboard lifeline in place, so replaced it and immediately taped over all remaining cotter rings to prevent any further losses.
A few days ago in the beginning rough seas the plastic cowling underneath the cockpit drain area that protects the cockpit drains from having sea water surge up and in, broke off sadly and was lost at sea. It's not serious in the current seastate but something I need to try and get a temporary rubber fix made in St Helena to prevent sea water gushing up through the drains in rough seas. It needs to allow water that may get into the cockpit out, but no sea from below in.... kind of like a one way valve setup. We definitely want a more permanent fix than the current shammy cloth I have over it now, that just "dampens" any sea surging up through the drains. I think given time we could source one from Lagoon and get it shipped to some where in the Caribbean.
Other than that, just reading lots and researching our route forward and listening to good music... Mellow mood aboard :)
That's it from the Cool Runnings crew!!! Thanks again for all the emails!!!!
Cheers Dave
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
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