Ship’s Log Week Six
Location: Atlantic Ocean, 17°12'40"N 46°40'16"W
Stars Twinkle, Planets Shine… every cloud has a silver lining.
Day 18 of the journey from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria to Rodney Bay, St Lucia… we have 700 miles to go.
The subtitle for this weekly update could be ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’.
After the excitement of Gerald’s wonderful wiring fix and the thrumming sound of the engine starting and coming back to life, we enjoyed a calm relaxing day and a half with the autohelm working and life on board returning to normal. Time for adjusting sails during a watch, maybe even reading a book (while keeping an eye on the horizon, of course), the fridge was working (and we still had some food in the fridge).
Then came the night of the squall. Dicky was on watch when the squall hit Walrus and bashed away at her, pushing her here and there and whipping her sails into a frenzy of flapping. Squalls are a result of the warmth of the sea and vapours rising to form unpredictable, uncontrollable winds that swirl and can cause enormous damage. Climate change and the rising sea temperature mean that these are now more frequent, localised, and, as a consequence not predictable. The squall raged for the next hour and a half, dousing Dicky in warm seawater. Lydia and Gerald came to the rescue and reduced the sails down to a minimum to allow Walrus to weather the storm.
During my nighttime watch the following night, a beep, beep sounded from the autohelm and an unfamiliar message flashed up on the screen… ‘low battery’. Sometimes Walrus autohelm kicks out due to weather helm (the winds are too strong for her to maintain course in autohelm), in which case an error ST 6000 message flashes. Very occasionally the autohelm stops working for no apparent reason and Walrus steers where she chooses until whoever is on watch re-gains the course.
After repeated beeping I reverted to hand steering for a short period of time, then reverted to autohelm and handed over the watch to Gerald before heading to my bunk and a few hours rest. During the course of the rest of that night and early morning, the low battery issue became more marked. Problem-solving began in earnest during daylight the next day.
Notifications about the state of the battery charge, voltage being used and amps generated (watch the forthcoming Technical Tuesday for more on this subject) are displayed to the left of the chart table. The batteries, X 3, used to store electricity for everything except the engine, are situated beneath a bunk. Investigation of the issue required turning the aft cabin, upside down to get to the batteries, which it transpired, although showing as 90% plus charged, were not holding the charge.
Back to square one, electricity use was to be kept to a minimum, no lights on Walrus at night, no AIS (shows where other boats are and the closest distance that they will come to Walrus), and no autohelm. We would be hand steering on 2 hr 30 min watches for the remaining 1000+ miles… phew..
About Day 13 I found myself thinking: Who knew the Atlantic was so enormous? Why didn’t I pay attention in geography?
Every cloud has a silver lining, the wind has more or less, maintained at a steady-ish strength, coming from the north, northeast and keeping Walrus going in the right direction at between 4-6 knots. We had hoped to arrive in St Lucia just before Christmas, in the current circumstances it’s looking like we’ll arrive on Boxing Day.
Since starting this epic journey I’ve learned that stars twinkle and planets shine.
On starry nights, hand steering is a joy… last night I steered using the Southern Cross constellation also known as La Crux, as my guide. The Southern Cross is visible within 13 degrees latitude of the equator. We’ll be crossing the equator just before we get to the Galapagos Islands more of that to come. The planet Jupiter has been a constant companion most nights. Last night I spotted another planet to the right of the Southern Cross – to be identified.
During the day flying fish keep us entertained with their butterfly-like flitting from wave to wave. Yesterday I spotted three black birds, far from land swooping and dipping over the waves. It’s at times like this that the magic of the ocean comes alive.
I’m planning a special Christmas lunch of tinned ham, chestnuts, butternut squash and tinned mushrooms in a peppercorn sauce with mince pies and custard for dessert. Don’t tell the skipper and crew.
Thinking of you as you wrap presents and put them under the Christmas tree, hang up stockings, stuff the turkey and meet up with family and friends.
Wishing you a very Happy Christmas!