Author: Seth
Pic: Refilling the tanks at the gas station
Google Earth Position at 06:00: 31 49 315N, 68 17 350W

Day 5 was yet another pleasant day at sea, but unfortunately it was a little too pleasant. While it was certainly nice to have the seas down to 2 feet, the winds remained under 10 knots the entire day. It was always unnerving to drop our sails and start the engines given our limited supply of Diesel fuel. And with our boat speed down to 3 knots, we would have to motor.

Back in Norfolk we had to think hard about how much fuel to bring. Normally one would know exactly how much fuel their boat required for such a journey, but given the boat was still very new to us we opted for the philosophy of "bring much more than you think you will need." So we thought about it and came to the conclusion that we expected to conservatively motor nearly 75% of the time during the first half of the trip, and then maybe 25% of the second half once the reliable trade winds of the Caribbean kicked in. With consumption of approximately 0.8 gallons an hour (guessing) we figured we would need over 90 gallons to motor 700 miles. So with 90 gallons as the magic number in our head and a tank capacity of only 50, we hauled an additional 40 gallons of fuel aboard in jerry cans (which we lashed to the rear steps and stowed away in the middle storage lockers until needed). While heavy, we would be willing to trade the lost boat speed for the security of knowing we would have enough fuel to last the entire journey.

Without fuel an ocean crossing could quickly turn disastrous. For starters, your engines charge your batteries, which in turn power your navigation lights (so a tanker doesn't run over you at night) and your radar (so you can avoid running into a tanker at night). Additionally, it's almost a necessity on a Catamaran to have your engines on in order to turn into the wind when you raise or lower your sails. Had we run out of diesel like some of the boats did in last years rally, we would have to divert to Bermuda to get more - which was pretty much not an option now that we had fixed our mainsail so triumphantly the day before. But it looked like this would not be required as we were doing well, using only a modest portion of our fuel and letting "conservation" be our motto.

But the soft conditions were nice. I used the day to refill our tanks manually (lashed to the boat on the rear steps) and I put in a new GPS antenna (as our old one would conveniently lose its "position fix"). And we also played a game of dominoes called Chicken Leg after dinner. Only on a Catamaran could you actually stand up a domino on the kitchen table in the middle of the ocean without it falling over. Let the record show that Elizabeth won the round with only 112 points, while Steve, myself and Henry came in second, third and fourth respectively (140, 168 and 176 points).

While playing Dominoes was nice, it would have been nicer to sail with some wind. Would we get more tomorrow, or keep running down our fuel supply?