May 18

Last night was uneventful, except that at sunset we decided to raise the mainsail again. The sea had calmed down quite a bit and we were able to keep the sails full, though without the motor the best we could do in the 10-12k was about 4k, so we kept motorsailing through the night.

However, as soon as we stopped the engine we noticed a scraping, squeaking sound coming from the drive train. Upon investigation we found it was the shaft grounding strap (a copper brush which rests on the shaft, as it spins, so as to make electrical contact so that the shaft is bonded to the rest of the grounding system to resist galvanic corrosion). I think when we worked on the shaft and shaft brake recently in Mooloolaba I messed up the ground strap so that its wear pattern no longer matched the shaft's curvature. For now I lifted it away from the shaft so it does not squeak!

Next we decided to check the engine oil, while it was shut down and sure enough we were low almost a quart, so we added some. At 1am we are back under power, oil pressure looks good, all systems go. With about 8-12k from the West we are motorsailing at 6-6.5k over ground (we have a 3/4k gain from a favorable current) and the engine is turning slowly at 1400rpms, hopefully burning very little fuel.

Weather reports we've received this morning show nothing changed from the 5 day forecast we left on. However, the skipper is concerned that we may actually have to motor 6 days to Noumea and that we may have underestimated our fuel consumption. This may have one of several consequences. First, he is worrying for nothing and we can easily motor the entire distance as long as we go slow and conserve fuel. Second, he has some basis to be concerned and we find ourselves 100nm from Noumea with only 20gallons left which means we stop motoring and start sailing at 2k the rest of the way. Third, the wind forecast is in error and we have periods of enough wind to sail part of the way. Oh, fourth, we happen to locate that elusive floating fuel station reported to be out here somewhere. Was that a Shell or a Mobil station?

At daybreak we find ourselves motorsailing in 11k of wind from the NW at 7k, the engine still turning at only 1400rpm. Over the last 12 hours our fuel consumption has gone way down from over 2gph to less then 1gph, perhaps 3/4gph. The big help we had yesterday, a favorable current which added 1k or more to our speed is no longer with us today. However, the wind, even though light as it was yesterday, has moved from our port quarter (left corner of the back of da boat) to amidships giving us a "reach" which means much more help from the wind. Thus we are making 6.5 - 7k over ground with no current helping us.

It is now 4pm, local time and we are 450nm from Noumea. This morning we shut down the engine at about 9am and sailed all day in light air from the WNW. We had 10-14k and was able to sail mostly between 4-6k with most of the day spent at a lazy but comfortable 5k over ground. At 3:30pm with the wind down to 8-10k and a bit more from the West had reduced our speed to under 4k which was too painful for us. When we started the motor there was a loud and painful squealing which I at first mis-took for belt-squeal. We shut it down and opened the box and when we went to restart it - the skipper at the ready with belt dressing (helps belts grip better) and other implements to determine the source of the sound - and it just clicked.