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Atlantic Crossing

cons were still transmitting, which allowed the ARC to communicate their
positions every day.
We were now at the tail of the flotilla, a hundred miles behind Lubilu III,
and ahead of Milena Bonatti
who has just left Then during an uncontrolled Las Palmas the day
before. In the gybe, the mainsail sheet following days, we
passed a few boats, including
Kia Ora, which whipped the Lowrance plotter had diverted and
made a stopover attached to the binnacle and in Cape Verde. On
December 3rd the wind rose to
propelled it into the ocean
18-20 knots, and the sea became
rougher. Given the failure of the desalinator, we implemented a stricter
water management.

On December 4th we had made 1/3 of the way, in 10 days. At this rate, we
wondered if we would have arrived before Christmas. A new watermaker
test was unsuccessful. After many hours spent in the bottom of the boat, I
noticed that air was constantly entering through the sea water intake. This
was due to the speed (!) of the boat, and it was impossible to fix for now.
We would have to be careful with the water until the finish. The wind was
now established at a good 20 knots. Our speed had improved significantly,
and all hopes of arriving before the line closes was not completely lost.

But on that day, a new problem appeared, the water generator was work-
ing so well that the batteries were 100% charged. Raising the propeller
without stopping the boat was not an option, because we had let it drag at
the end of a cable, which would start to loop furiously if we had tried to
take the propeller out of the water. We decided to turn on all the devices,
and if necessary, we would switch on the lights day and night. But at the
end of the afternoon Gilbert discovered that the cable and propeller were
gone: a shackle had opened in the vibrations (we had secured it with a plas-
tic fastener which was not strong enough). We do have a spare propeller,
but Christine had noticed that our speed had increased by 1/2 knot since
this loss, and opposed to relaunching the water generator, so we would
have to manage the consumption of electricity. The solar panels would
probably produce enough to keep the batteries up, but we had to give up

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