Day 9 to 33:12N 62:58W Wind F2-4WSW 108nm Part Day

We unfurled the Genoa at 03:03 this morning but it was another 12 hours before we had enough wind to hoist the Main. If anything technical bores you witless skip the next two paragraphs.


At best the wind has managed a low force 4 and we have been motor sailing down-wind Goose winged (with the wind at 150 degrees or more to starboard we have the Genoa to starboard and the Main to Port - we can use the autopilot but set it to steer to keep a consistent angle to the wind rather than a specific direction). Whilst not faster than motoring this improves our fuel consumption which with 680 litres on board and 12 days to go is a big priority. Hakuna Matata is an electric hybrid and works a bit like a Toyota Prius. The diesel generator produces 240 volts AC which is converted to 72 volts DC to charge the battery banks and power the 72 volt Leroy Somers engines. The maximum current the generator can produce is 210 amps and you can use this to power the engines, charge the batteries or both. You can even use the engines at 300 amps (maximum power) for a limited period as this uses all the generator can produce and gets the remaining 90 amps from the battery bank.


My usual cruise setting is 75 amps per engine which on a completely calm sea (with a clean bottom) gives me 6 knots. This leaves 60 amps to charge the batteries if they need it. Using the sails today gave us some forward propulsion but not enough to keep up the 5.7 to 6 knots we want to maintain so we use some power from the engine as well and we get this from the batteries. The batteries then run down over a period of time to about 50% which they can do without damage and the generator automatically comes on and recharges them. This allows us to maintain speed with the generator running about half the time and with a bit more wind as little as about one 6th of the time. Usually beyond that we have enough wind to sail with no motor and we just run the generator occasionally when we need mains electricity or to charge the house batteries that run the lights, instruments and charge all our iPods if they aren't getting enough from our solar panel. Finally, if there is lots of wind we can also use the engines as generators and at the cost of about half a knot charge up the batteries or power stuff directly in an entirely green and sustainable manor - cool eh!


Other than another sailing boat heading North we haven't seen a soul and the only wildlife has been the damned fruit flies that came in with the broccoli and are breeding like; well flies. Gregor Mendel must have been driven completely insane with the things buzzing around the monastery all the time and if he'd had a can of bug spray we'd have avoided all those tedious biology lessons and no-one could be sure who their fathers were. We do have bug spray aboard that Louise carefully selected to be as non toxic as possible (it only uses "botanical" pesticides) sadly the flies also consider it non-toxic but I have successfully swatted some with the container.


Sorry , it's been a bit of a surreal day today the only thing that actually happened was that a catch on one of our winch handles broke and we discovered that our Lewmar spare didn't fit our Harken winches (except one). We were all sure (except Louise who's never seen a winch in her life before) that these things were one size fits all. I footled around with a file and my micrometer callipers until I got bored and will have another go in the morning.


I'm finally going to have to give up the nightly beer as I am now certain it is affecting my sleep. For heaven knows what reason the following has been going round and round in my head and as I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything to blog today.... "My research on beer is over I fear, my solace now for many a year. But sweet repose I find so fine, still perhaps it doesn't apply to wine."


Good green curry from Justin tonight hopefully a bit more wind in the morning (I know I said this yesterday).