The wind eases overnight as the depression moves eastwards and by 0700 although the sea is still bumpy I think we can make progress once more under power. I pre-heat the engine as usual and turn the key. All of a sudden - nothing happens! The beast refuses to be roused.
After repeated attempts, I give up. The symptoms are very similar to those experienced last year approaching Bermuda and then again when approaching Shelburne. On the first occasion Rob from Essex helped me (or rather I helped him) sort the problem out. Rob had arrived in Bermuda with a cracked rib sustained in a storm whilst heading for the Azores from the Carribbean. Air was being sucked into the fuel system which he recommended I get re configured so that the fuel pump pushed rather than sucked fuel through the primary fuel filter and would therefore push any air out of it when the bleed screw was released. Did I? No of course not!
Initially we leave the beast to its own devices and drift becalmed. After a couple of hours George begins what will turn out to be a long and arduous campaign to resuscitate the beast.
By 1230 the wind returns and we get underway again on a starboard beam reach. By late afternoon it's raining hard but we continue to make good progress in the right direction.
We fail to take a midnight position and so cannot record the daily run or distance to go' but we have probably averaged 5 knots which means we have covered about 120 miles and about 100 over a straight line.
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