03 December 2005 | 2728.410N,1848.222W,0M

Trying to get the oars in the water.

3 Dec, 05 – 21:02

Latitude: 27? 28′ N
Longitude: 18? 48′ W
Miles from La Gomera: 94
Miles to Antigua: 2455
Miles since last dispatch: 30
Position in race: not known

Mum was giving me an update on the race progress. ‘You’re past the small island.’

Yes, I had noticed. It had started to seem like El Hierro, the westernmost of the Canary Islands, was never going to disappear from sight. I had started to suspect it was following me. But now it’s just a distant shadow on the horizon. Next stop Antigua.

Watermaker worries

This watermaker is going to be the death of me – not literally, I hope. It caused me a seriously nervous moment this afternoon when it stopped working in mid-flow. The switch was still on but the switch light had gone off, so I thought the fuse must have gone. There ensued an increasingly frantic search for a 15A fuse. I knew I had one somewhere, but could only find 5s and 10s.

I optimistically put a 10 in, and was just wondering where I could find a watermaker expert on a Saturday to ask for help, when it occurred to me that maybe it wasn’t the fuse at all.

I put the original fuse back in, switched the watermaker over to my other battery, and bingo, back in business. The battery had been flat. Too much iPod and not enough sun. ‘Don’t dooooo that to me,’ I begged the watermaker and got back to the oars.

Ropey old rowing

The rowing technique has taken a turn for the worse today. I’ve got relatively big waves coming at me side-on, so it’s a constant challenge to get both oars in the water at the same time. I’ve given up and adopted a syncopated rhythm instead. Ugly, but it seems to result in surprisingly steady progress.

Wind direction: 70?
Wind speed: 11 kts
Weather: cloud and sunshine
Sea state: choppy
Hours rowing: 10
Hours sleeping: 6
Thought for the day: remember there is peace in silence