Ulric: Another day, other conditions; when I woke up it was grey, a bit of drizzle at times, but the sun trying to break through making you still long for your sunglasses. The wind had been fluky in the morning. I heard Hans starting the engine, then sailing again for a while etc. However, now it was freshening a little from the West; above forecast. We raised the asymmetric and slowly but surely Queenie gained speed to about seven knots, despite her seriously dirty hull. She has not been lifted and cleaned since Spring last year; not what a girl conscious of her cleanliness and looks would like!

Visibility is down to 3-4 nautical miles. We had some traffic, but most ships go through the Finisterre TSS. We passed Cabo Finisterre, 70 nautical miles to the East, a few hours ago. It is a little bit sad to pass the Rias (rivers) of Galicia without visiting them, but with current time schedule and weather conditions, it is not possible. We were forced to tack out into the Atlantic to avoid short tacking against strong Northerlies on the coast for the first few days of this leg.

Hans: I was woken up by Ulric for my morning watch. Watches are scheduled in nighttime from 20h until 00h, then two three hours watches: 00h00 to 03h00 and 03h00 to 06h00. The morning watch is to about 10h00, but the person coming from the 3 to 6 watch is allowed to sleep a bit as long as necessary to recover for the day. Then during the day we have no explicit watches we both take care and from time to time one of us takes a nap after informing the other.

My watch at 06h00 started in almost daylight. Sunrise is around 06h30 but it was cloudy and the light of the sun dispersed through the cloud layer made it look light already. There was a little drizzle but it wasn’t cold. The engine was running because it is our only source for charging the batteries at the time being. Our generator still doesn’t run well. And our batteries are empty after a night sailing with the radar continuously operational.

At 08h00 the engine was off for 1 hour because there was some more wind. Unfortunately, it dropped again and we engined on to 10h30. Then a persistent wind started to blow from the west with 15 knots. Enough to hoist the asymmetric and gently sail towards Brest at a pace of 5 – 7 knots. Meanwhile I had cleaned and cooked the octopus I bought at the supermarket in Oporto: with some potato, parsley and olive oil it makes a nice salad. We didin’t eat it today, Ulric had late breakfast and I was also not that hungry at lunchtime. Therefore, we keep it in the fridge for tomorrow lunch or dinner. Even better that the flavours can blend a bit better together.

While sailing we checked the freshwater pump. A pain already for about 11 months. Technicians have been looking at it in Gibraltar and at the Canary Islands but couldn’t find out why it doesn’t stop running after reinstalling the pressure in the buffertank after having used the freshwater tap. We had to shut it down manually at the main switch board which is nasty everytime while cooking or washing hands after using the heads.

From the manual (RTFM) it became clear that there is a mechanical switch that switches the electrical switch on the pump. Two bolts on a metal lever: one bolt defining the maximum pressure, the minimum pressure at which the pump should switch off, and the other defining the differential pressure, the maximum pressure at which the pump should switch on (think about it: this is a lower pressure than the cut off pressure … the pressure in between cut on and cut off the pump doesn’t run when it was not running and the pump should run when it was running).

The lever balanced the system against the water pressure. It was this lever that was stuck due to, probably, some corrosion. But when moving it by hand it started to move again also by itself as it should and the pump was working again: switching off at minimum cut off pressure and switching on at maximum cut on pressure. Again we have learned a lot about the systems onboard which is very useful may such problems appear again.

We checked the fuel filter which was again partly filled with water. My guess: it was water suspended in the diesel still from our trip in March this year. We took the water out and switched to the second filter. After that it was time for dinner. I prepared cannelloni with a sauce of cream, cheese, and some piri-piri spices. It tasted well, a recipe to remember. Dessert was a cake that originally stems from the Middle East, Turkey, The Lebanon. Made of couscous, egg, fat yoghurt and baking powder. Both last ingredients I lacked, therefore I used as alternative creme fraiche and a mix of couscous with self raising flower. I folded two baking molds from pieces of aluminium foil to bake the mini cakes. After baking I soaked the cake in a syrup made of sugar, water, and some juice from blackcurrants and apples that was in our fridge. Originally lemon is used in the syrup but also that I lacked. It was a warm dessert and I must say: with the apple-blackcurrant syrup its flavour was even better than with lemonsyrup!

Now it is again my watch. Just before Ulric went to sleep we saw two humback whales at reciprocal course. It was already becoming dark, therefore, they were difficult to photograph and film. Also their opposite course made our encounter very short. After a few breaths the dove and didn’t reappear to us anymore.

At 21h00 I took away the asym, which had done a wonderful job today. The engine has been started again: winds dropping below 7 knots and speed over ground below 3 knots.

We have to be in time in Brest …. It is 22h00 UTC+1, (b)logwriting time. We are in position N 43 57.7 W 010 13.3. Wind is 5 knots from the SE. Visibility, due to drizzle, less than 2 NM.

position:44 5.2'N:10 4.3'W