We’ve been at sea for just over 3 weeks now. Stocks of food are good, but a couple of days ago we discovered that the remains of the Mexican chorizo we bought are starting to bloat a little in their packages. We bought enough to feed a navy (I love chorizo and egg in the morning) but haven’t been eating it at the rate we were expecting. Dave seems to sleep until 11am most days, regardless of which watch he took overnight, which means Eva and I just pick at cereal or porridge when we feel like it, and we’ve not been having a group cooked breakfast. So the last few days we’ve had chorizo in everything! The usual chorizo in scrambled egg, chorizo with rice, and two evenings of epic chorizo and vegetable lasagne. Still a few sausages left, I’m not sure I can manage any more though.
We have a few eggs left – they’ve lasted well as my room mates in the forward cabin. There’s plenty of cheese nestled in the bottom of the fridge, a couple of packs of bacon and loads of butter, but other than that all the fresh food is gone. We’re dreaming of fruit and French croissants when we get to the Marquesas!
We’ve not caught any fish. To be honest we’ve not really been trying that hard; forgetting to put the line out most days. We have had the line out often enough to have lost 3 lures though, so we’re down to a small spinner that I don’t have a lot of confidence in. But what do I know? It’s the fish’s opinion that counts!
The last few days’ sailing has been a mixed bag (yes Tony- hours of boredom punctuated by moments of excitement [not terror]!); more mind dulling motoring with a few exhilarating high speed rides as various weather patterns pass over us. Monday night was amazing – one of the more memorable moments of the trip so far. Charging down wind in the dark with a rising sea and 35 knots behind us, two reefs in the main and a bit of genoa out on the pole, half moon giving just enough light to make out the waves and clouds, with the odd star poking through now and then. Dark clouds moving around in the distance, hard to make out at night, giving the feeling that we could be battening down the hatches for more wind at any moment. Kept me on my toes.
In fact yesterday I was pretty exhausted- a combination of the sailing the night before and then hours in the heat of the day trying to get to the root of the charging problem – which I’m putting down to parts overheating, for now. When the wind dies after blowing hard for a few hours, there’s always a load of waves left over. With no wind to fill the sails and keep the boat heeled over, that means horrible rolling, rolling, rolling. Which is not fun when you’re down below decks, twisted in all kinds of crazy positions trying to get to the back of the engine or the battery compartment, tiny screw in one hand, screw driver in the other, and torch in the mouth, thinking “don’t drop it, don’t drop it”. Fortunately I have a masochistic streak and enjoy the challenge of trying to make it work. To a point…
Right now, the wind is dropping again as we approach the equator. We all desperately want to cross the line before dusk, but even with the highly trained crew I have on deck, tweaking lines and sails for maximum speed, we STILL have a 1 knot current against us and it’s looking like it’s going to be another couple hours away. Still, we’re nearly there … South Pacific here we come!
Road and Ocean 
Any luck with solving the charging problem? Is this charging due to using the engine or to a wind turbine if you have one? Is there evidence of overheating somewhere? I should think that your pre-university experience with electrical circuit design would come in good use.
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