Odyssey Day 2 Through 4

The big excitement on board today was the diesel on the floor in the aft cabin.  Investigation determined that there was a leak at the top of the tank where the fuel gauge comes out.  A temporary fix was to remove the fuel gauge and put a plug in the hole.  A replacement gasket was fashioned and installation was attempted.  The boat was rocking too much to install the fuel gauge again so the temporary fix will have to do until we have calm seas or we are at anchor.  Last night I had the fun shift from 7 to 11 PM.  As in my last passage from Galapagos to Marquesses the winds are fabulous starting at 7 PM.  We were zipping along at 8 knots with 16 knots of wind. 

The spinnaker has not come out again but we have spent a lot of sailing with the Genoa held out with the spinnaker pole. We have done a fair amount of wing on wing and Captain Rob has called on my experience with down wind sailing for a good part of our trip so far. 

Apart from the boat problems the crew has been getting along great.  I must mention how welcoming Rob and Carol where on my arrival in Martinique. The made me feel right at home, a wonderful feeling. 

We found out today the the BPO representative that will facilitate our check in at the San Blas Islands will not be departing on January 27 as we were originally told.  He will be staying until January 29 so the pressure is off to attempt to get to San Blas Islands by January 27.  Please check out our position by clicking on the link to the right.  As of yesterday at 10 AM local time we were 350 nautical miles from our starting point.  You will see from our path to date that we have sailed a lot further than that to get that far with our zig zagging back and forth.

News Flash -  We hit 9.3 knots of speed... the fastest Maggie has ever gone while Rob and Carol have owned the boat... in 19 knots of wind!   Also at 5:30 PM tonight we had traveled 513 miles from our starting point.