There have been times when I thought if it was all over right now it's been a wonderful life. So many things that as an underachieving (Dyslexic) school kid I never thought possible - great marriage, brilliant kids, amazing career, raced cars, flown planes, had a whole year sailing the boat of my dreams and diving with my family in places as close to Paradise as you can get. But inevitably between these times you forget what a lucky person you are and coming towards the end of both our journey across the Atlantic and of my sabbatical with the dawning reality of traffic congestion, grey winter days, a new job or business and selling the boat in the middle of a recession my mental barometer is forecasting a low - so what I need is a plan.
With five days to go (Justin says he considers the 700 miles a short hop where before it would have been huge) we're all starting to plan. Jim will be jumping straight on a plane to see his wife, Louise is going to work in a vineyard, Justin is doing the Bull Run in Pamplona and I'm planning a last glorious five weeks around Southern Spain, the Balearics and France before leaving Haku in Port Napoleon for sale and going back to real life. I like Justin's plan, sounds like the ultimate adrenaline rush, what a great way to top off his break - (or to break his top off?). I just hope he already told his mother (as otherwise I just did).
It was a clear tonight and as I came on watch at 3am Louise who had been studying the star charts was able to point out Deneb, Vega, Polaris, Cassiopeia and the very clear Milky Way. The wind was rising so I put up the sails, cut the engine power to 50amps and shut off the generator. Sailing again, blessed silence.
I like to believe that in the event the US turns off the GPS system I'd still get where I'm going
And I tried about 20 times just before dawn to get a good star sight on Polaris but first the horizon was too faint and then the star was. I like doing this because just reading the elevation off the sextant gives you a pretty reasonable Latitude fix without doing any calculation. For some reason on the West bound trip in December Polaris seemed brighter and this was easier - back to noon sights.
We were still getting the little hesitation when the generator started.
Pretty much the only thing I didn't change during the service was the fuel filter (not due) and as I had a spare I fitted it. Hey presto! No hesitation (so far).
Burgers a la Louise for dinner last night, complete with Bacon, Cheese, Coleslaw, Tomatoes, Curried roast Carrots and naturally in Justin's case Jerk Sauce. Turkey wraps and soup planned for lunch. Justin just said he had watermelon on the brain - when not much is happening you get a bit food fixated!
Tuesday 30 June 2009
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