| At Sea. Volvo Ocean Race: A leaking toilet makes life unpleasant on ABN AMRO 2 |
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| Sunday, 16 April 2006 | |
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Simon Fisher: Sailing these canting keel boats offshore with complicated hydraulic systems you always fear the call that there is a problem with the pump or a seal has blown out. Rather worryingly that call came today on ABN AMRO TWO. Fortunately, for the performance of the boat the keel system was intact although it was something equally unpleasant and serious; the toilet pump had blown a seal and was leaking its contents all over the front of the boat. After a clean up operation was mounted, Simeon Tienpont demanded some sort of quality of life on board took it upon himself to pull apart the pump and try to replace the faulty seal - a job that no one was queuing up for and certainly not one for those without a strong constitution. However, despite losing a few parts over the side due to the murkiness of the water in the cleaning bucket with a bit of ingenuity and some carbon fibre plate Simeon managed to successfully clean and repair the faulty pump once again restoring some sort of civilized lifestyle aboard ABN AMRO TWO. After disappearing into the head armed with a roll of toilet paper and a copy of Seahorse magazine he re-emerged triumphant - the offending pump having successfully been tested! In the midst of this action we have been slowly edging our way across a ridge of high pressure, it is now slow going with only 5 knots of wind. However our hope is that if we can cross the ridge in better shape than those just in front we could gain valuable miles to them. So far so good, but right now we are in the lightest part. A zephyr of wind every now and then fills in hinting that the worst of the calms are over but each time the breeze has slowly died away once again leaving us struggling to keep the speed on. With only 30 minutes to go to the next sched we shall know whether our hard work has paid off. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 April 2006 ) |
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