Water, water everywhere.

Something over 25 years ago, I went through the sequence of RYA shore-based courses which culminated in Yachtmaster Ocean. This is way back when Morse was still part of the Yachtmaster Offshore syllabus! I completed them with the practical on all but the Ocean qualification. The Ocean practical is largely about celestial navigation and with the advent of GPS and other navigational aids, it didn’t seem so relevant – or at least that was my excuse as I had found all the complicated calculations really quite difficult. However, in the planning for my ‘Atlantic Circuit’, it seemed a good idea, given the prospect of weeks at sea and the need to keep busy, to equip myself to be able to complete ‘the full set’. So it was that I purchased, on EBay, a very attractive post war, Italian, all singing and dancing, nicely boxed sextant as described by Ollie yesterday.

This current leg which is supposedly beset by calms, seemed the most suited to the celestial navigation exercise but, quite frankly, I just can’t get on with the Italian job. As a result, I have reverted to my familiar plastic sextant which I had used in pre GPS days for working out ‘distance off’ against charted heights. Fisher Price it might be but, when you have wrongly calculated the time of the sun’s meridian and sit with the heavy ‘dog’s danglies’ held at arm’s length for an extended period watching the sun rise to its zenith, the appeal of the light weight ‘Cheapo’ is compelling!

In the event the noon sight was the last I took as the weather deteriorated and the sky was shrouded by cloud. Heavy rain followed and the ARC forecast, Emailed daily, suggested 35 knot winds. As a result I ‘bit the bullet’ and invested in the satellite megabytes required to download a ‘pukka’ forecast. One of the good things about the ARC is that you do make friendships with other yachts and we had a call from Cliff on AWOL who was about 10 miles away and keen to discuss the weather. This is very helpful as we all use different sources for weather information and we have our own interpretation of the data. It seems we had both reached a similar conclusion and we decided to stay in touch as our plans seemed to coincide.

At dusk, we dropped our main and continued under the easily reefed jib and a slow running engine and braced ourselves for the expected blow. As I write this on my early morning watch, the wind has increased such that we can maintain our pace under the jib alone and AWOL’s lights are visible two miles astern and steering the same course.

The watermaker problems were expected to be a thing of the past with the installation of my unique though hull intake. The good news is that it starts producing water immediately with none of the previous air issues at all. The bad news is that the water quality is very poor and we have not switched production to the tanks. When we stopped using the watermaker after the crossing last year, we ‘pickled’ the unit as recommended. This introduces a preservative to protect the membrane and it was alarming to see and smell a discoloured filter when we came to re-commission the unit. We changed the filter but despite running the unit for an extended period, remembering to empty the bucket frequently, the water still has a taste to it. We have now extended the sampling pipe to reach my sink so we have been able to run it all night and will check the quality again in the morning.

Ollie writes;

Among other books, I thought I’d bring out a Patrick O’Brian novel for this trip.

If you’re not familiar with O’Brian, his novels feature a Royal Navy captain and a naval surgeon during the Napoleonic wars.

The seafaring adventures of Aubrey and Maturin will be the perfect companion to a fortnight’s ocean sailing – I’m sure you agree.

Well this might amuse you…

I think I’ve managed to grab the one Patrick O’Brian novel that’s set almost exclusively on land!

As we fizz across the North Atlantic with nothing but two shades of blue bisecting the horizon, I’ve been reading vivid descriptions of the autumnal Dorset countryside!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great read, it just doesn’t match my surroundings so well.

A bit like trying to watch Pride and Prejudice with the soundtrack from Gladiator.

Anyway, it’s been quite a grey day, with plenty of rain and no other boats on the horizon.

I’m amazed at how relaxing this can be.

I’m sure that will change as the weather changes.

But for the moment, it’s back to those rolling fields and falling leaves!