Day 31 - June 22, 2019 - Click image for larger view
1100 miles out of Bermuda with 7-800 to reach Horta, Faial, Azores.
The text below was live via Predictwind iridium satellite at the time.
Wild Riding - Bilge Pump - Leak!
Sat Jun 22 2019 07:47:00 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Must admit I was a bit scared the past few days. Waves appear as moving mountains from the view inside my floating island nest.
I discovered a leak (small stream) through a weep hole in a factory sealed compartment under the starboard lazarette. Can't imagine where it is from. Only the hull is on the outside. This leak caused the bilge to fill often, then the electronic float switch failed ON which in turn burnt up the 2000gph pump. Replacing with the spare would be a tedious project under the conditions. The cabin inside looked like my daughters room when she was 8 as I ransacked for that pump for hours.
Meanwhile I had to go outside into the wild cockpit a few times, with harness on, to manually pump the bilge. This was a very difficult challenge.
I bypassed the float switch spare hidden deep outside in the cockpit locker buried under miles of line and wired the spare up direct. My current process is to manually turn the pump on each hour or when the high water alarm goes off. Its worked ok through the night. There is nothing more to be done until reaching port. It's a minor issue in the big scheme.
Onboard I'm getting 20-25 knots of wind on the stern. Add to that the fwd motion 4-7 knots and its over 30 at times but not under 19 for the past two days. I eat any snack handy.
Predictwind expects this to subside later today, counting on a reasonably correct forecast. I need to open the boat and air out! Hope you all had an exciting few days at home. I'll try and catch up in Horta. Cheers friends.
Equipment Failure Excitement!
Sat Jun 22 2019 14:48:00 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Very little solar today! Just enough to keep navigation instruments, fridge and basics going. Engine high power alternator got saltwater inside and quit. Sprayed WD40 in it while running and caught fire, extinguished quickly! Not enough battery power to run the power hungry autopilot through the night. Just got the trusty wind and water powered Monitor wind vane dialed in and steering somewhere. I'm hoping it holds course in these 10' following seas. So far so good.
The high seas is tough on equipment and this old body. 1000 nautical miles out of Bermuda 9 full days of excitement. More excitement than I bargined for!
I'm sure tomorrow holds another day of adventure.
Peace Out!
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