Blog Day 81
Latitude 50 26.91S
Longitude 93 33.09E
Barometer 1009
Air Temp 1c
Local Time 0109 UTC+6
LIVE TRACKER
Hi All,
Well last night the conditions continued to be annoying, either delivering 20 knots of wind or 40 knots of wind. In a few of those squalls the winds peaked at 47 knots so it was impossible for me to shake out the reefs in the lulls, so I just had to wear it. But it makes for some frustrating sailing and a lot less sleep. I finally was able to get to sleep well after the sun was up at 0800, and managed a short 2 hours of rest before my alarm tripped, and it was time to wake and change over the micro plastic samples. I flopped right back into bed directly after as I was still exhausted and woke again at noon for the second sample change.
So far, I had managed around 3.5 hours of sleep and I had been planning on sleeping again after that sample change, however when I opened the watertight hatch that separates the main living area with the sail locker I noticed that there was a lot more water in the bilge than before... It was about 15 cm deep on the floor of the boat and sloshing from side to side but two hours earlier it was only a dribble there. I immediately started to look for a leak.
I have had a bad experience in this compartment before when I set the record sailing solo around Australia. I was crossing the Bass Straight sailing North to Sydney for the finish line and happened to go to the toilet. In the heads (toilet compartment) you can see into the sail locker through a Perspex hatch and I just happened to find that the sail locker was flooding at a rapid rate, and I was at that moment sinking. I was in storm conditions and happened to smash down off a wave so hard that I busted the log (transducer - an instrument that is mounted through the hull of the boat to give boat speed/depth and sea temperature) and it had fallen out leaving a hole through the boat into the ocean. At the time it scared the living daylights out of me as I hammered in a wooden bung and then removed over 2 tons of water from that compartment.
I have since installed a high bilge alarm there, but I always have since then, had the need to check that compartment more frequently. So, as I appeared to have sprung a leak I immediately started searching for the problem and assumed it had something to do with the science unit in that compartment. When I got low enough to see under the science unit, I could see a stream of water shooting out sideways from the connection between the science units saltwater intake and the through-hull fitting that goes through the hull of the boat. Thankfully, the leak appeared to be above the safety valve, so I was able to shut this off and stop the water flow, but I needed to work out a repair or else I wouldn't be able to keep taking samples.
Upon closer inspection the plastic fitting that screwed on to the brass through-hull appeared to have cracked along the side. This is a common issue with plastic fittings going onto the metal ones, and with the more extreme temperatures of this trip it wasn't too surprising that this happened, but unfortunate all the same. I put the micro plastic sampler and science unit into standby mode and went looking to see if I had any spares. There was a box of parts that came with the science unit when I rented it from The Ocean Race but as I searched there wasn't anything that would do the job I needed it to do which was to replace the broken fitting. In the end after searching in a few lockers I found some plumbers welding repair tape and ended up using this to bind up the crack and hopefully at the very least prevent it from getting worse. For now, it appears to be holding, but I have been checking that compartment a lot more frequently Hahah.
With the repair in place I then went to turn the science unit and micro plastic sampler from standby mode to active only to find that it didn't have any power for some reason. I started to think that the world just didn't want me to get any sleep today. There was absolutely no reason why the unit should not be working. I checked the fuse and took apart the control box to see if there was perhaps a loose wire. I also disconnected and reconnected all the plugs into it in-case I had bumped one during my repair of the leak, but nothing was working. The power feeding the science unit is 24 volts however the whole of Climate Action Now's electrical system is 12 volts, so when Bruce from Safiery installed the battery system he also installed a Victron 12 volt to 24-volt converter to ensure that I have 24 volts available for the science unit. I checked via the Bluetooth to see if this was functioning correctly, and all seemed well, but the science unit was still not working. I was running out of things to check so I simply shut off the converter and turned it back on and when I checked there still was no life to the science unit. Figuring the next step would be to replace the control panel with the spare I had been supplied I decided to halt for a while. It would take me an hour at least to make the change between the two and I was still operating off no sleep so I decided to get to bed for another nap before tackling it.
I went to visit the heads just before going to bed, and what do you know, I could just see a light through the hatch showing that the science unit once again had power... I climbed back through, and it all looked to be working normally. I have no idea what caused the power loss, but it is back up and running now and hopefully it will stay this way. Finally, I was able to get a short sleep in at 4pm for an hour before getting up and making something to eat. The winds have begun to ease between the squalls now, so in the lulls I was now sailing in 15 knots of wind or less and in the 5-6 metre swell that was still around the boom started to crash from side to side again, so the evening was a little game of pull on the preventer in the lulls, ease it off in the squalls and pull it back on again afterwards. There is a big lull coming up tomorrow and so the winds are going to continue to ease. I am hoping that with the easing winds I won’t be getting such harsh squalls and I will actually be able to change the sails over, but for now I will be getting a little sleep. I anticipate at first light to be hoisting some more sail in the cold. It is freezing again outside but this is the last time in this record that I will be this far south and that I will be in such cold conditions, so I am just trying to embrace it.
Today also marks the 81st day at sea. On the tracker you will see that my ship from the 2017 record is reaching Cape Town today after my dismasting and that so far had been the longest time I had ever spent at sea on a single voyage with crew or solo, so from now on every extra day that I am at sea is a new record set for my longest trip at sea, which is quite exciting.
And so for now I would like to take a moment to thank tonight's amazing degree sponsors.
Thank you so:
090 East - Women Who Sail Australia - Huge thank you to all the amazing women who are apart of this group and who donated to help purchase this degree and two others. A special mention to Shelley Wright for arranging this all but all of you have been such and amazing support of my sailing over the years and so thank you for your generosity and encouragements.
092 East - d'Albora Marinas - The Spit, Mosman, NSW - Thank you to d'Albora Marinas for always giving my boat a home, you were my very first sponsor for the first Antarctica record in 2015 and you continue to support me all these years later so I truly thank you for your support of this record and all the others. The d'Albora Marina at The Spit has homed Climate Action Now for quite some time and is perfectly placed between the Northern Beaches and the City.
Thank you all and goodnight.
SPONSORS
TECHNICAL PARTNERS
DEGREE SPONSORS CLICK HERE
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