Saturday 31st March / Sunday 1st April 2018
Wind dies down at night so keeping cruising chute flying without it wrapping around the forestay, with its furled headsail, becomes problematic.... We ended up motoring in slow circles Friday night - and were lucky to get a bad wrap unfurled. Since then we've been really careful to avoid a repetition - the light winds over these last few days have made the spinnaker the best option.
Motored for 7 hrs in calm conditions after the Friday night wrap (boat speed had dropped to 1-2 kt!) - but soon realised that was not a realistic ongoing possiblility - too much fuel used. So last night, the light winds (always seems to be less than in daytime) kept the watch-keeper glued to the helm, adjusting our course as the fickle light wind moved around, to make sure of no further 'wraps'...
Batteries have not been holding charge as they ought to - meaning radio use has been severely curtailed. Today (Sunday), after discussing turning back (!), it was decided to explore the batteries - found two dud 6V batteries among the bank of four checked on ... They have now been taken out of circuit and we're hoping no more are found - the other bank of four will be checked later today, after seeing how things go with the six remaining batteries - if all looks good, no more testing will be needed (they're only just over one year old, I'm told). Fingers crossed we've beaten April Fool's Day....
It's 2100Z (Mexican time was 3pm but they just went into daylight saving overnight - so it's now 4pm in Banderas Bay)
Computer keeps playing up - the modem driver does NOT like Windows10!! I'm forever having to reboot the computer and re-start the radio to re-boot the modem in order to get a Winlink radio connection for weather info and weather-faxes. Time-wasting, power-consuming and frustrating!
We've just passed due S of Clarion Island, the furthest west of the Islas Revillagegido (try saying that in a hurry!). It's sunny, calm and peaceful - we're all now trying to catch up on a lot of lost sleep.
16 27'N, 114 47'W - see boat track using the positions posted to the link on www.svnereida.com (given on 'Home' page or 'Travels' page)