I have just gone down to bed for my morning catch-up nap when I hear a lot of flapping and winching over my head. I lie there for a minute hoping that it will go away but when it doesn’t I get up to see if Mike needs any help.
It turns out that the u-bolt holding the block at the end of the boom has unscrewed itself after sitting there for at least two years and the wallowing motion had jerked the pin out and straightened the bolt in the process. The noise that I had heard was the boom swinging around and the main sheet crashing and whipping against the bimini (which is as taut as a drum and amplifies the noise around).
We get the main down, put a new bolt in and then get the main up again before I go back down to bed. Unfortunately I am now wide awake and sleep does not come easy. I haven’t been sleeping so well the last few days so this is a bit of a disappointment.
I do sleep a bit but weird dreams about beached whales making our dinghy disappear and me slipping on whale pooh wake me up early and I get up again to make lunch.
It’s too hot to lie in the sun in the afternoon. In fact it’s getting too hot to lie comfortably in the shade now. As we cross warmer water towards Brazil, the air temperature rises dramatically. It’s about 33 degrees in the afternoon and even after 6 pm it’s still 31 degrees. I really want the air conditioning on but can’t afford the luxury in case we run out of diesel (the a/c won’t run off the boat engines). I can’t believe I am now moaning about the heat after all the moaning about the cold in South Africa.
Photo: Ohh look, another sunset!
Photo: Mike reading in the golden glow of the setting sun
Our position is: 13 deg 44 min S, 30 deg 48 min W
Distance so far: 21568 nautical miles
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