AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/04/27 18:05
LATITUDE: 02-47.17S
LONGITUDE: 092-48.24W
COURSE: 228T
SPEED: 5.3
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 7
WIND_DIR: NNW
WAVE_HT: 0.0M
WAVE_PER: 0
SWELL_DIR: S
SWELL_HT: 1.8M
SWELL_PER: 7
CLOUDS: 50%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1011
AIR_TEMP: 30.0C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 1 – 155 nm (nautical miles)
We motored on the starboard engine for the first 24 hours and are now sailing on starboard tack, wind on our right. This means we\’re still being effected by the doldrums to our north. We have our full main and our big reacher and we\’re ghosting along. The wind is expected to go aft and then come from the opposite side which will mean we\’re \”in the trade winds\”.
That should happen over the next 18 or so hours and why we continue to head southwest instead of straight west. Once in the trade winds, we\’ll evaluate the predictions and change our heading accordingly.
Our starboard engine is holding up, but went thru 2 1/2 quarts of oil in 20 hours! That\’s because it is suffering from the same malady that the the port engine is. Both are usable and I\’ve now fitted a pressure relief tube on top of the valve cover to hopefully reduce the (apparently?) excess pressure in the crankcase which is causing the leak. This suggestion comes from Ken Dickinson, a life long friend of Nikki\’s in England and \”ace mechanic\”. I\’ll hold judgment till we reach Tahiti on why we\’re having this issue and have them both removed and taken apart (for the third time in three months!). This MUST be sorted out once and for all. We\’ve still got to nurse them yet another 4000 miles till we get some qualified personnel to evaluate them. The good news is, once we hit the \”Trades\”, we might not need them for days. Let\’s hope.
We\’re sailing a bit slow as we\’ve not reached the \”Trades\”, but we\’re heading where we want to go and hope will be zipping along by this time tomorrow.
KIT!!
Scott and Nikki