We crossed the Tropic of Cancer yesterday prompting the resurrection of the 5 R system - Berri's Regular, Rationed and Random Rewards Routine - we decided that this was a suitable Random event that should be Rewarded and we engaged Dr Grindy for a what he billed us for as a Long Consultation at 1700. Regular events are the daily passage through spacetime that brings 1700UTC into our 'Now' momentarily each day (short Con with Dr G, high on the event horizon for both of us through the heat of the day) and the alternate passage of our little world from odd to even to odd numbered days. Because of the need to Conserve in order to be able to Consult under 5R (see above) for the whole voyage back to Oz should we decide to potter on past the obvious stopping places, we have a proper breakfast in the company of Dr Murphy on odd numbered days only. We have some raspy Australian cask red (1 euro/litre in Lisbon so it must be pretty random) which gets trotted out on even days for dinner. Pete likes it - I tend to watch and encourage with loud cries but desist from actually running it past my teeth. We are 1870 or so miles from Falmouth, so in about 130 miles there will occur what I hope will become another regular event. One, I think, that merits Pete Goss' brew.
Polaris is getting satisfactorily closer to the horizon and Mintaka closer to the zenith - still downwind, twin poled, apparents never more that 10 kt and often down to 4 which is when Kevvo takes his bat and ball and slinks off to sulk. But 10 kts is only just enough for the Airbreeze to tick over and put mini amps into the battery so we have not yet seen it at full blast. We run the engine for about 3 hours each day to keep the batteries and all the gizmology (laptop, watermaker, instruments, nav lights, autopilot and camera chargers) working and I've just added 25 litres of diesel to the tank. We've used more but we're rolling around so much that I can't fill the tank without diesel sloshing out of the filler hole and into the bilge. I think we're burning about 1.5 ltr/hr but time will refine this estimate. If the Airbreeze has the grunt, once we get some serious apparents it should give us the 2+ amps we need to break even or get ahead. Hope so anyway - else we'll have to close things down like last time when the towed generator died.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
