PEARL ISLANDS TO GALAPAGOS

As the sun went down and the night turned to black I had a terrible sense of dread. I’ve never quite had anything like it before. I was sweating, felt sick, ran to the toilet! This was the first night at sea since that terrible night off the Colombian coast and that had to be it. Was it a fear of putting us all at risk, of experiencing that hell again? It was a shock to me realising I was feeling this way – pure emotion coming to the fore.

We were sailing well being carried out by a fair tide when there was a roaring and the boat started to jump and splash around. We were going through a tidal race like you do around headlands back home – but we were in the middle of the sea! The charplotter showed nothing around and I even checked the radar in case the chartplotter/gps had got it all wrong. The sea actually roared at us and as it was pitch black all we had was sound and motion, really odd and not very nice! However, we were where we thought we were and the tidal race was just one of those odd things you sometimes experience at sea.

The moon came up, I chatted to Mark on Blue Magic and his eternal optimism made me feel better. I couldn’t believe that I had really had such worried feelings from out of the blue.

David and Sue did their 3 hour watches and I came back on as the new day dawned. Starting the generator to recharge batteries I was puzzled when it cut out. I restarted it and it cut out again. This is a real worry as the generator is essential for making water. Reaching for the manual we worked out that the fault was overheating. I cleaned out the water inlet filters and restarted the machine. Sadly it cut out again. I then set to work to take out the impellor, which sucks in water to the generator. That involved having my head down into the bilges, in very sweaty heat, reaching into a very hot machine and undoing the water pump – while the boat rocked around! Good job I am not prone to seasickness now!

Thankfully it was the impellor and I had a spare. After a lot of fiddle I put it all back together and it worked! Quite satisfying in the end.

There was a warning that this part of the world is often windless. No one told that to the wind which kept blowing, often over 20 knots, which is faster than we need! So we haven’t had to motor so far.

Today, suddenly. something dramatic and scary happened. All crew apart from me were on deck when an alarm on the helm went off. I thought it might be the fire alarm in the engine room and rushed round to look. As I did I smelt smoke. The engine wasn’t running although the generator was. There was smoke in the engine room.

I came back to the main saloon and the smoke was increasing rapidly. It was coming out of the floorboards at the bottom of the steps. I lifted them up to be confronted with fire. Fire on board a boat is the worst possible danger. You have nowhere to go. The wood, varnish and then fuel make short work of a boat when ignited. The flames are etched on my mind. I can see wires and a black flame, the toungues reaching up to me. I turned and Jo had in her hands a fire extinguisher. Super wife!

Your mind works at double speed at times like this and I was already going through abandon ship procedures and emergency mayday calls as I pulled the safety clip off the fire extinguisher. Thankfully it worked instantly and the fire was out in seconds. Smoke and acrid dust from the extinguisher filled the cabin but the air soon changed. It was frankly a horrible experience. Perhaps this was what I was dreading with that fear on the first night?!?

It looks like it was the emergency bilge pump, but difficult to know for sure as it is so far down. Who would expect that to burn. That is there for emergencies not to create one! I’m sure Discovery Yachts will want to know what caused this. The wiring is only 2 years old and should be perfect.

Blue Magic, Raylah and Jackamy all changed course to come closer to us. Good to have friends close by. We are now sailing in a small convoy. If anything else happens help will be with us within an hour.

I spoke with Joanna. We think 24 or so days at sea across the Pacific will be too much for the little ones crammed up in the boat. I don’t want to endanger them. So she may come home with the children (great news for all her famiily and friends) for that period.

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~ by David on March 6, 2010.