Date12 April at 2322
PositionS 16° 2’/E 2° 36′

I was able to stop doing my rain dance on deck, as I can make water once again!

As I write I am lost in a noise of the generator and the water maker both on so that I can fill my water tank. It is a wonderful feeling and a huge relief and it is all down to the painstaking patience of the shore crew. They guided me step by step through every stage during our trouble shooting session and then as the problems moved from electrics to the mechanics, once again they took me step by step through the inside workings of the high pressure pump and we changed the appropriate seals and more importantly put it all back together to produce the right result.

It has taken three days of perseverance and patience, which was more abundant in the shore team than in myself. They didn’t cry or have a tantrum in frustration; they just smoothly moved onto the next possibility. Even when I put the two sets of seals on the wrong side they calmly suggested I changed them over with no accusations.

This episode has heightened the need for vigilance all the way to the end and not to risk everything by allowing complacency to creep in. It also goes to show that absolutely anything can still happen with the miles left, even though in relation to what has gone before it is a small amount of time and distance. It has also strengthened the team and we are together making sure we consider every possibility with our daily and weekly checks. I may still be physically alone, but the shore team has been with me all the way and have proved their worth tenfold. They have overcome every problem that has arisen on the voyage and kept my confidence levels up in the process.

Aviva has also been wonderful, almost as a thank you to fixing a part of her; she has been sailing along quite happily in between each gybe. I am continuing to gybe along our corridor of wind and now in relief and a pretty dirty and sweaty mess I shall celebrate by having a well-earned shower. Life will feel wonderful after that as I wash the worries and frustrations of the last few days away.

A soon to be cleaner Dee and Aviva