Not A Joy Ride!
08 May 2010 | Off Shore Northbound to Fiji
Joan
We were hove to in 35 knots of crazy big seas until about 10 last night,then the wind started to die and switch so we spent the several hours getting the main back in operation. We took a giant wave over the top of the boom and the lines were a mass of spaghetti. Untangling them in the dark was a real pain. We finally get the boat moving east...yippie and now discover that the fuel tank is contaminated...bad fuel from last year. So we can't use the engine now. We will be tearing the boat apart looking for some hoses and hopefully get enough to run the engine using our 30 gal. of fuel in our jerry jugs. Right now we are swapping naps...very tired from last night. All is well on board though, so we will keep plugging away. Once I'm finished here, I'll get the lapper ready and we'll get that back on the roller furling. That will give us some speed. This sure has turned out to be a frustrating passage. We are 460 miles from Fiji, so we are getting closer. Not being able to motor sail through these light winds is vexing,but we'll get the boat moving smartly here in a few hours. We have lots of power on board through the solar and wind generator so we should have no problems giving you updates. The sun is shining, and the storm has passed, so we will focus on getting the boat moving again!