I spent some time this morning looking at various forecasts and hoping for an “ideal” weather window for rounding Hatteras. Nothing ideal appeared, but a Nor’easter is predicted for Wednesday, so I decided to just get going. I’m beating south at the moment and anticipating that the winds tonight and tomorrow will be light and variable, meaning a lot of sail changes/adjustments, so sleep is going to be difficult. I’m going to be one tired camper three days from now, but the most challenging part of this trip should be behind me.
As luck would have it, the winds remained pretty steady, dropping from 17-24 kts to 12–15 kts around midnight. I got to reef the sails a few times to keep the lee rail above water, but experienced no real difficulties. The skies were clear and I had the moon to keep me company as I nibbled on various snack foods and a toasted turkey/cheese bagel.
I had an unpleasant surprise this morning (Sunday) around 4:00 when I started my old nemesis, the generator, to charge batteries. The loud exhaust sound and high RPMs signaled some sort of problem, and then the generator shut itself down, a light indicating a high exhaust temperature. I checked the strainers, finding them clean, then removed all the gear stowed forward of the generator compartment. Once I was able to access the offending machine, I restarted it to see if I could get any visual clues as to what the problem was and immediately noticed the toothed belt which drives the water pump, recently tightened by Charles, was not driving the pump. I discovered that most of the teeth were missing from the belt which was very close to breaking. I managed to install a replacement without great difficulty, grateful that I did not have to replace the impeller, and the generator returned to normal.
Sunday morning dawned with a beautiful sunrise and a perfect breeze from the southwest, allowing Alana to steer directly for the next waypoint off Diamond Shoals on what I hope will be one, uninterrupted starboard tack.
I had an unpleasant surprise this morning (Sunday) around 4:00 when I started my old nemesis, the generator, to charge batteries. The loud exhaust sound and high RPMs signaled some sort of problem, and then the generator shut itself down, a light indicating a high exhaust temperature. I checked the strainers, finding them clean, then removed all the gear stowed forward of the generator compartment. Once I was able to access the offending machine, I restarted it to see if I could get any visual clues as to what the problem was and immediately noticed the toothed belt which drives the water pump, recently tightened by Charles, was not driving the pump. I discovered that most of the teeth were missing from the belt which was very close to breaking. I managed to install a replacement without great difficulty, grateful that I did not have to replace the impeller, and the generator returned to normal.
Sunday morning dawned with a beautiful sunrise and a perfect breeze from the southwest, allowing Alana to steer directly for the next waypoint off Diamond Shoals on what I hope will be one, uninterrupted starboard tack.
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