The Gasman Cometh

It looks like, from an email from Katharine, that  my  blogs are coming in in bursts, sorry if we had you worried.

All’s fine here, still slightly uncomfortable with winds 22-30 kts on the starboard quarter. We are still bowling along at about 7 knots.

(Graham says: Sorry all, that was my fault. I was away skiing and thought I’d posted Day 10’s blog using the App on my phone. Anyway, it’s turned up now, much like (spoiler alert!) Jock’s torch)

You’ll all be tremendously relieved to hear that my torch turned up; the gas had run out,  (the first bottle since leaving Scotland) and whilst I was again upside down in the Lazarette with Quaile holding the locker hatch open for me I spied my torch in a bucket where it  had obviously fallen the previous day when I had been fishing out sheets from the locker for the staysail.

We had a bit of  a fright last night when the fresh water pump kept running rather than turning off once it had achieved the required pressure, it does this when the water tank is empty.  A quick  check revealed that  there was some water still in the tank so it’s possible that there was an air lock or similar. We normally turn the water pump off unless using it just in case a leak comes our way and  the pump would then empty the tank into the bilge.

We had the last of the salad yesterday and I’ve frozen some , now cooked peppers which were about to run away, we had a sausage casserole one pot dish last night for dinner, one pot dishes are good in the bouncy weather we are having at the moment. The Sausages were from Lidl  in Sta Cruz in La Palma and weren't nearly as good as McQueens’ finest but not bad all the same. Our yoghurt was coming to an end and I’ve managed to make some more, it’s not as thick as I’d like it to be but it seemed to work. I  had to find somewhere secure to put it once brewing and eventually put it on the engine again and then removed it before we started it for battery charging purposes and put it in a locker above the engine compartment which was ok but possibly a little cool, I’ll put it back on the engine again next time maybe once we stop it.

We have lovely starry nights at the moment, my iphone app seems to be a little confused as to which direction it is looking but once Stephen had his up and running constellation identification became a little easier. We have a good view of the Southern Cross at the moment,  it’s actually nowhere near as close to the heavenly  South Pole as  Polaris. The nights are still relatively cool requiring  fleeces and the daytime temperatures are yet to be uncomfortably hot so we’ve been very lucky temperature wise. Bye for now

Jock and the gang