Friday 21 November 2008

Day 2 - Puerto Mogan to Antigua

They say bad things happen in 3's.....

After our fight at the end of day 1 with the fridge lid we decided to start the engine as there was no wind. We noticed that the batteries weren't charging properly again so Jonny had to change the alternator back to the new alternator and disconnect the charging booster ... touch wood things seem to be working properly now.

We carried on motoring into the night as there was still no wind. Just after watch change at 02.30 the engine stopped ... we had caught a huge piece of fishing net round the prop. We tried to get it with the boat hook but it was stuck. Jonny tried manually turning the prop shaft and this seemed to free it slightly and we managed to get it from round the rudder so it was all on one side of the boat ... in the end we had to give up and wait for daylight so that one of us could go into the water with a knife.

In the morning we decided that i should go over the side as Jonny had hurt his hand on the engine and had it all covered with plasters. I put my wetsuit on, put on a harness that Jonny tied some rope to to attach me to the boat and tied the knife to me .. luckily there wasn't much swell and when i got the hang of things it was quite easy to cut the net free. The water was quite warm although i got abit of a shock when i first got in as i nearly landed on a fish ... not sure who was more surprised ... Roo was very disappointed i didn't have the net handy to catch it!!

The wind is now a good 12 knots on the beam and we are making good progress with the main and genoa out. The swell isn't too bad. Hopefully this will continue for the rest of the journey??!!

For Roo's friends: i forgot to mention yesterday that the colouring set came out in the afternoon of Day 1 - there are now 2 pictures proudly displayed on the cupboard doors - one by Roo and one by me!!


Distanced traveled Day 2: 79 miles
Total distance traveled: 179 miles

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you are having a great time. It sounds great despite the expected mishaps!

Adrian

Jane & Graham said...

179 miles - out of how many? What do you estimate the crossing to be, in both miles and days?

Glad it's going well.

Enjoy yourselves...

Jane and Graham