Cayenne, French GuianaTechnical Glitches at Sea
Overall it has been a great day to be on the pond, with near perfect sailing conditions especially for Mr Oxley. We have been cruising along at 15,2 knots today, and that really is flying for our floating home, probably slightly too fast, but it still feels comfortable. A classic sailors day of fair winds and following seas.
Thankfully the crazies seem to have disappeared for a while, so hopefully we will have a calm night. In the last 24 hours our plan has changed, we have decided to skip Belem and head straight for French Guiana, at this stage though we are still not entirely sure if we will clear in or just drop our pick in some calm water for a couple days. By now we have also decided to head for Trinidad as a place for an extended stop, as this is out of hurricane zone.
We had two small panics today, the first being that our port engine did not start, this could create quite the nightmare when trying to anchor or enter a marina, but the guys managed to get it charged and started, so we will see how we manage when we get closer to land.
We have also been trying to save fuel and not use the generator, so we are being extremely careful with both water and power, we need the generator to make water, as without it our water supply will be very limited and also to top up on power. We are a very power hungry boat due to all our creature comforts. A couple of hours before dark we usually turn the generator on for a short while to top up the power for the night, since the solars cant help us after sunset.
Panic sets in as the generator is turning on but not charging the batteries. A solid 45 minutes of stress with Bob the Builder and Fix it Felix trying everything and fiddling with everything imaginable, and just like that the Captains magic fingers touched the spot and we were up and running again....although this is still something on the to do list as clearly we have a problem, maybe a little karma for using the generator as an excuse to get into Recife mmmm I wonder! It would have been a very tough few days if we never had a working generator.
The sky is magnificent tonight, and despite our technical challenges the sailing and weather are fantastic.
Thankfully the crazies seem to have disappeared for a while, so hopefully we will have a calm night. In the last 24 hours our plan has changed, we have decided to skip Belem and head straight for French Guiana, at this stage though we are still not entirely sure if we will clear in or just drop our pick in some calm water for a couple days. By now we have also decided to head for Trinidad as a place for an extended stop, as this is out of hurricane zone.
We had two small panics today, the first being that our port engine did not start, this could create quite the nightmare when trying to anchor or enter a marina, but the guys managed to get it charged and started, so we will see how we manage when we get closer to land.
We have also been trying to save fuel and not use the generator, so we are being extremely careful with both water and power, we need the generator to make water, as without it our water supply will be very limited and also to top up on power. We are a very power hungry boat due to all our creature comforts. A couple of hours before dark we usually turn the generator on for a short while to top up the power for the night, since the solars cant help us after sunset.
Panic sets in as the generator is turning on but not charging the batteries. A solid 45 minutes of stress with Bob the Builder and Fix it Felix trying everything and fiddling with everything imaginable, and just like that the Captains magic fingers touched the spot and we were up and running again....although this is still something on the to do list as clearly we have a problem, maybe a little karma for using the generator as an excuse to get into Recife mmmm I wonder! It would have been a very tough few days if we never had a working generator.
The sky is magnificent tonight, and despite our technical challenges the sailing and weather are fantastic.
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