For the past six days, it has been blowing 20 to 35 knots day and night straight on the nose (so much for the bribing of the gods!). And for the past five days, Pekka has spent most of his time in the engine room, day and night. It all started with dirty filters. Because of the continuous banging against the waves, the sludge at the bottom of the fuel tanks had become loose and started blocking one filter after another. Having changed seven filters, Pekka decided to install a so-called day tank of 40 litres where we pour clean fuel from the jerry cans (in which we only have 140 litres compared to the about 600 litres in the proper fuel tanks!). As we didn't realize that the gauge on the day tank couldn't be trusted, the tank managed to run out of fuel unnoticed and the engine sucked in air and had to be bled. When everything seemed to be OK and Pekka restarted the engine, the sea water pump refused to co-operate because, as it turned out, the impeller had no blades anymore. Then the V-belt started slipping and when that problem had been fixed (but only for the time being), it became evident that at least one of the four injectors was broken. After the engine problems, it seemed as if the disease was spreading all over the boat: malfunctioning communications, water in the bilge, torn foresail, broken lower stay etc. etc. etc.
The still ongoing leg has been so exhausting both weather- and equipment-wise that, for the first time during our travels, Pekka has started talking about lack of motivation, and I don't blame him at all. As he is the Captain, the choice will be his (I'm more into gardening anyway). But, we haven't turned around yet!
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