[password] rachel25
[position]38 17.000s 086 10.000w
[status] On passage to Valdivia, Chile

Day 38. Ana here. We were becalmed for much of the day, with no sails up. We sunned ourselves, and aired the bedding. It felt almost like being in the tropics again. Lucas even went for a dip in the sea. Not too cold, he told us. I stood on shark watch.

Later Colin, with Lucas and I pulling on various ropes to help stablilise it, took the faulty wind generator off the back gantry. No mean feat with Colin perched on the gantry, and the heavy generator with 1.2m propellor dangling from the main halyard. We turned the engine on and motored at 5 knots to try to reduce the rolling in the sloppy swell. The two engineers found the cause of the problem almost immediately, burnt out slip ring brush connection, they tell me. They are able to repair it, but it is unlikely that we will have another calm patch in order to reinstall it, and make sure it was the only fault. Murphy's Law, and all that.

With just over 600 miles to go to Valdivia, we're busy eating our way through the vegetables and fruit. We have a rather large amount of potatoes to go through, much to the delight of C. and L. I tolerate them, just. However, L. has introduced us to the art of making Hash Brownies with a hint of rosemary, and I have to say they are rather good. Carrots and cabbage are still on the menu. Beef, lamb and venison are still OK in their vacuum packs in the fridge.

The bird life is slowly increasing, in numbers but not in variety. C. and I visited the excellent Albatross Center in Dunedin while in NZ, and saw with horror, a display of a huge amount of plastic found in the stomachs of 1 adult and her chick. Since then, we have made sure not even a tiny amount of plastic leaves Ithaka. Instead we place it in a used plastic milk bottle with a lid. It's amazing how much a bottle can hold. A great solution for storing rubbish on a boat (Thanks, Jose of S/V Stravaig, Savusavu).

[speed] 4.5 knots
[heading] 135 true
[weather] Wind SSW 5 - 8 knots. 0.5m waves. Sky 10% cloud. Baro 1020.
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