Still sailing…
We are still sailing, which means that we are still in the race. We are almost 200 miles behind the leaders, but still pressing onward to the finish of leg three under sail….. We are badly broken but not out. Hopefully we can make it the entire way under sail; that would be a victory in itself. One great thing about the Volvo 70 is that even with the throttle set at an idle, we can still sail at nine or 10 knots with decent wind. Not too bad.
Although a new problem has arose today. We can’t keep hydraulic fluid in the one remaining cylinder that is holding the keel in the centre cant position. This means that the keel slowly creeps to the leeward side. Hydraulic oil is running out of the cylinder and into the bilge. It’s a huge mess. We’ve used all our spare oil. Now we are collecting the oil - water slurry that ends up in the bilge putting it in buckets, letting it settle, skimming off the oil from the water and pouring it back into the hydraulic pump.
Yup, this is a long, long leg. Knowing that we all have a week long vacation when we get to Singapore only makes us more anxious to put this leg behind us.
But, in the meantime, we’ll keep sailing.
Matt Gregory – navigator
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