Author: Ulrich Fingscheidt

The lines are saturated with salt. They are so stiff that they remain in awkward shapes in the cockpit. After a strong rain, they can be coiled up nicely again. I will reach the Gambier Islands in three days and I am starting to adjust my speed to avoid an arrival at night.

The sails are lit up by the sun which is below the horizon. I have entered a new timezone: UTC-9, MESZ-11.

Today’s repair was the valve of the left small burner of my Force 10 gas stove. Two days ago there was a sudden flame surrounding the stove when I was boiling water. The left small burner was leaking gas. The valve moved with difficulty and did not shut off completely. Today, I took the valve apart (red circle), cleaned the parts with brake disc cleaner, and reassembled everything. Now, the stove works flawlessly again. No more gas leak. Yes, I have four recently serviced fire extinguishers and a fire blanket on board.

The ghosts of the night are gathering for their appearance.

This is the data shown on the AIS. The most important figures for navigation are: CPA = closest proximity of approach, TCPA = time of CPA. The 333 m long cargo ship is on it’s way from Santiago de Chile to Hongkong. ETA = estimated time of arrival. This was the first ship I have seen in two and a half weeks.

My AIS-alarm woke me up at 6 a.m. A cargo ship had entered my alarm zone of 24 nm (red circle). The dashed line shows the course over ground in the next 120 min. He slightly changed course and passed my stern 1:30 h later. My friend Jörg wrote me a mail right away. He could only see the cargo-ship, not me, on my position on Vesselfinder, but I reassured him that I was fine. Thank you, Jörg, my friend, for taking so good care of me!

Sailing into the pitch-black, moonless night. No time for fear. I have put up a lot of canvas in a somewhat unusual configuration. The staysail fills the gap between the genoa on the port side and the mainsail. This increases my speed by about 0,3 kn.

I am having a good time. I wish you the same, my dear friends. Thank you so much for your support.

A creaking noise in the aft cabin got on my nerves since two days. So I grabbed my toolbox, a tube of marine grease and a can of WD40. I removed the sturdy plate behind the steering wheel and greased the blocks that lead the steel cable from the steering wheel to the rudder quadrant. The quadrant is the semi-circular structure in the center of the photo. In this case, it should rather be labelled ” Duoant” since it is not a quarter of a circle, but rather a semicircle. What do you think? Anyways, the noise is gone, problem solved. Have a nice week!

Good morning, people. Have a lovely Sun day. This was my sunrise on Saturday.