It’s Tuesday mid morning and we have not used the engine since 0400 early on Sunday morning. As the wind has been pretty strong in the upper teens and low 20s, the wind generator has done a pretty good job of keeping the batteries up. While the load from the fridge uses more than the wind and solar together produce, I am getting substantially more power from the solar than prior to the upgrade and after nearly three days, the batteries are still at 93%.
Prior to upgrading the solar and adding the wind generator, I would have been fighting a loosing battle with power and would have had to run the engine for at least an hour in the morning and at night just to try and keep up.
It was my hope that the wind generator would have at least provided enough power to keep all the instruments going. It is doing that and more.
And, as an added benefit, the cabin is a lot cooler than when I run the engine.
Solid wind and a reasonably favorable angle has allowed us to make great time and our distance covered with in the last 24 hours is upwards of 200 miles, a remarkable showing for most any cruising yacht. We had left the harbor about 3 hours behind most of the other boat that left when we did and over the last few days we have passed many of them
Conditions have been pretty sporty with Pandora on a close reach with apparent wind over 20kts much of the time. This means that we are taking water on deck almost constantly.
Ever since I purchased Pandora I have been chasing annoying leaks and while most all have been corrected, there is still a pretty meaningful leak around the deck joint for the mast. This isn’t a problem on a port tack as the dribble ends up on the floor. Fortunately we will spend much of the run on a starboard tack so I will be fighting salt water getting on our bunk.
I had a new mast boot installed right before heading out and I don’t know why there is still a leak. I hope to better understand this but won’t be able to address until things settle down a bit.
The good news is that other leaks, coming from some of the big deck hatches, are resolved, at least as of now, which is good news.
The GRIBS, weather forecast, call for good sailing in brisk conditions, for at least the next day or so and then we will be motoring for a day or two, perhaps longer, before picking up the trades as we head due south to Antigua.
Unfortunately, they are expected to be quite strong and now may have a slight southerly direction which may make for some close wind sailing and wet conditions. This is a departure from more a more reasonable forecast only a few days ago. Hopefully, this trend will reverse before we get to that point later in the week.
So, here we are, bouncing along in pretty stiff winds and seas but at least we are making good progress.
Additionally, the improvements that were made to the reefing system, new lines and some other upgrades, are making all that a bit smoother.
Wet and sporty aside, covering 200 miles in a day is not too shabby.