Here are the highlights of the past few days:
- Port engine stopped working
- Starboard engine stopped working
- Light winds
- Unfriendly currents
- I washed my hair (that actually happened this morning)
Okay, here are some details.
Both engines worked when we left the Seychelles. We tried to start the port engine several days into the passage and nothing happened. It attempted to start but never turned over. Not good, but we still had the starboard engine. Plus, we had crossed the Atlantic ocean on another boat with only one working engine (and monohulls only have one engine), so we didn’t worry too much.
But then the starboard engine started having rpm issues. It got progressively worse over a period of two or three days (we cannot recall). First, the rpms would slow down then recover on their own. The next step was that we needed to slow the rpms to keep the engine running. Then it would die even if we reduced the rpms. It gradually got worse, until it wouldn’t run for more than a few minutes.
So now we had no engines, an unfriendly current, and next to no wind. We were still more than 300 nm from Socotra, our first waypoint.
In addition to the problems with the motors, we mentioned before that we sailed far off course in an attempt to avoid a southbound current (we are going north). We never never seemed to avoid the current (?), so we only made about three knots speed over ground (SOG) *even when the starboard engine was still running*.
So, here we were farther east than we had intended to be when we started the journey, no motors, yucky current, and light wind.
More in the next post . . .
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