Monthly Archives ¬
Daily Archives ¬
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
Location: 34° 17 S, 95° 54 E
Monday 12:00, 02.12.2007
The Schooner Maggie B was at 34° 17 S, 95° 54 E at noon on February 12th. We are headed straight for Fremantle (090 degrees magnetic) at 8.9 knots with a lovely NW'erly at 18 knots taking us in. We have come 3545 from the Seychelles and have 1040 to go to Fremantle. As I write this at 1630, we are cheering that we have broken the 1000 NM to go barrier! An extra round of chocolate for all hands!
Today has seemed to be an endless series of small, difficult repairs. Our gas shut off solenoid stuck partially open, which was tough to diagnose. It seems to be fixed now, but the T-junction valve also failed, and we had great difficulty putting together the parts to plumb it all back together. Now we are using gas from a little Brazilian bottle, which should, hopefully, get us to Fremantle.
The diesel was hard to start this morning and when I went over it, I found a small diesel leak from the bottom of the fuel filter. A small drain valve in a plastic water-in-the-fuel sensor had come free and was dripping fuel. We took that apart and used epoxy to seal the drain hole. Four hours later, with the epoxy set, we reinstalled the sensor, only to have it break when it was tightened. Sigh. OK, we don't need the sensor, let's just plug up the hole. Easier said than done. Large metric hole. We searched the whole boat top to bottom and couldn't find anything that fit. Then, finally going through a jar of junk, I found the discarded, failed, salinity probe from the watermaker, which we had replaced in the Seychelles. A perfect fit! It is now getting epoxied into position in a fresh fuel filter and we will know tomorrow morning if we have a functioning engine.
Hannah made a delicious little chicken for lunch. Roasted with lots of onions, olives, curry and garlic. Perhaps "puttinesca" if it were Italian, but we christened it Roast Chicken, Indian Ocean. Marvelous! We were able to have a civilized meal, eating on deck as we rush along almost at hull speed.
We should have a favorable breeze, 20 knots from either our port or starboard quarter for the next two days. The next gale is headed our way as early as Wednesday, as we close the Australian Coast. We will be very careful to keep our options open.
All is well.
Say Something »
You must be logged in to post a comment.