Monday 16th May 2022 – En-route to Darwin

I was woken by Luke at 02:00 for my second watch. I laid on one of the cockpit cushions on the trampoline for almost the entire four hours of my watch, listening to an audio book and I saw many meteorites burning up as they streaked across the sky including one huge white ball of fire falling very slowly which lasted for about five seconds.

I also saw many satellites and enjoyed looking at the moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter through the binoculars. There were no other vessels all night and the featureless sea bed was flat and around 100 metres deep all the way. Sun rise was beautiful and for a while there were many dolphins riding the bow wave keeping me company.

Luke woke around 07:00 and took over watch keeping and I was asleep in two minutes and didn’t wake until around 10:00. I pored the remaining 100 litres of diesel (stored in jerry cans) into the main fuel tank and Darwin was still 126nm (19 hours) away.

The water got even more calmer and was now like an oil slick and it was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky started. Occasionally, some very tired birds would land on the boat for a rest and every now and then we passed large schools of small fish leaping out of the water as we glided past.

We both listened to audio books and music to pass the time. The day was rather uneventful with no other boats being sighted; we were totally alone on this vast ocean crossing. At around 23:00 I was feeling very sleepy and was about to wake Luke for his watch when suddenly the STBD engine over temperature alarm went off.

The raw water pump belt was totally worn out and was slipping. I had to straddle the red-hot engine to disassemble the V-belt cover so I could first remove the alternator belt to then be able to remove the raw water pump belt, burning my arms and hands in the process.

It probably took about 1 ½ hours to complete the task and then I cleaned up some remaining oil around the engine. By now I was extremely tired and covered in oil & grease. I had a shower out on the back deck and tried to cool down and relax with a cold beer. It was around 01:30 before I finally went to bed totally knackered.

Track Sirocco’s progress

 https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco