Date 10 April 0130
Position S 23° 19’/ E 6° 30′

It seems the conditions are here to stay which is great for progress. We completed our morning gybe and spent the day heading west before gybing again at nightfall. We are hoping for the wind to shift a little but it is still yet to happen. The swell has reduced and over the course of the day the cloud cover reduced as well, leaving many more patches of blue sky around. It is still not the conditions to sit and enjoy on deck but I will happily trade that for fast progress towards home.

It seems the South Atlantic is going to repeat some of its original haunts from my journey south last year. Not only did I have a couple of days of autopilot alarms to test me out but now today, after months of trouble-free working, the water maker has decided not to play again. I couldn’t believe it. I freed the gears on the pump, and then I checked the motor and found it not to work so I replaced it and still had no joy. I replaced the fuses at the control box and then also remounted the High Pressure pump on the front of the engine and still I had no joy.

So once again I find myself armed with a multi meter carrying out tests at various stages along the system answering the shore team’s questions in the vain attempt to get it running again. I guess I was not destined to sit back and enjoy the ride for a few days, but rather keep me busy by giving me another project to fix.

There were no flying fish found on deck today thankfully, however, as we move ever closer to the equator, we move ever closer to their territory. Still it was not so long ago when I was happy to trade seeing icebergs for flying fish and now every time I see one I think back to those three days and two nights of dodging the field of icebergs and smile. I definitely would rather clear the deck of flying fish each morning than return to that scenario again.

Dee and Aviva