Thursday, May 19, 2005

Journal Entry – May 19, 2005 Pacific Puddle Jump Day 15 – First Day in the ITCZ

Author: Pam

The day started with a squall again at 0700, this one dropped the most rain so far. How strange we have had a squall at the same time the past two days. We were able to catch enough rain to completely fill the rest of the bug shower and a little extra. We both got a little chilled from being out in the rain, we made oatmeal and Scott made coffee, it was nice to have something warm for the sake of getting warm. The sun came out around 10:00 and it was hot and sunny all day (no more oatmeal needed), it was a great day for making solar power. We took our third bug shower in fifteen days this afternoon under very warm skies. As mentioned early on in the trip we have been struggling with a couple of leaks and extra water flowing around the inside of the cabin and bilge, nothing at all dangerous just a nuisance. The bilge was filling with water and needed to be pumped everyday, which just wasn’t making any sense. So Scott rolled up his sleeves (so to speak, he hasn’t worn a shirt since we left I think) and started poking around in the bilge. Long story short he found the culprit, the bilge pump was actually letting water in when the boat heeled sharply to port. There is an anti sipnhon hose that normally prevents water from sloshing back through the bilge outflow through hull fitting, and it appears that we squashed the hose down when we loaded water bottles into the same compartment as the hose. Scott temporarily plugged the through hull and all is fine for now. We will unsquash the anti siphon hose when we get to Nuku Hiva. We had Zone meals for lunch today. Zone Perfect is a sponsor of the circumnavigation. They produce a balanced meal that has been vacuumed packed and cooks in five minutes in boiling water. We cooked them in sea water which worked out just fine. We also have Zone bars, which we eat frequently for breakfast or if the seas are too rough to cook. The final Zone product on board is a shake mix that you mix with water. I prefer to mix it with at least cool water, so I am waiting to be able to use water that has been in the refrigerator, once we are able to use it again. We are very appreciative of Zone Perfect’s support.

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