We have had a wild and wooly time of it out here since the last report. There has been a lot of wind from various directions in the 25 knots range, Let's call it a solid Beaufort Force 6. These winds brought with them 2 meter, 3 meter, and large waves. The wind is far the easier to deal with. Waves and swell this size toss this 27 ton boat around like a toy. I am very happy we weigh 27 tons in these conditions. An example of small disasters that can occur: less than a quarter cup of water quickly but carelessly placed on the chart table, by moi, combined with an unpredictable roll of the boat by a large wave resulted in a small spill on both Bluetooth keyboards. Beyond being rendered useless one of them tried to destroy the main computer with unauthorized communications. NO keyboard, NO no blog. As you might have noticed I'm back. Karyn reminded me of the 'wet phone in a bag of rice trick". Well, loooky here, one is brought back to life. The other remains to be tested in daylight when that arrives in an hour or so. The longer, harder story is the effort to get the Yanmar diesel running after sudden failure. Of course it wasn't the diesel engine at fault. It is bad fuel going to the Yanmar. However, the same fuel goes to the generator and it runs just fine. The fuel coming out of the filters looks okay, not great. This is common with boats that have been in rough conditions with not a lot of fuel in the tanks. The fuel sloshes around, stirs up the years of sediment, and add a little sea water from the tank vents there you have a problem in the making. So , the fuel in the tanks looks terrible; foamy, cloudy, sediment, air bubbles from the hand pump. Terrible. Fuel out of the filters is okay. To make this short; after 22 hours of round the clock struggles I retired to a nap in frustration. Lesson: when frustrated always take a nap. Quickly after the nap it became apparent the fuel lift pump previously tested and assumed working was in fact not working, even after cleaning, and this had to be the problem. With the crews help, always with the very concerned crew helping, the pump was bypassed and we could continue our voyage. AS the fuel repair had progresses the wind had died and gladly the waves had also moderated. The bad part was we could not be sailing. Almost the moment the Yanmar was running again the wind returned with the same force as before but from the other direction sending us where we want to go. We are now sailing a lumpy sea with only the mainsail, double reefed, toward Piriopolis, Uruguay. Arrival is possible Friday

...just in time to find more butter and diet coke. The diet coke? That's another story.