A Slow Boat From China - Miles per Gallon

Sunday 8th April 2012 (Easter Sunday) - Day 4

Early morning I'm checking my GPS again when I should be hiding Easter eggs for the lads.  I reckon we have a minimum of 367 miles to go - probably more with all our zig-zagging.  Our average speed is only 6mph and so our time to our destination is around 61hrs (2 days 13 hrs - ETA at Subic is Tuesday evening).  Our fuel consumption is estimated at being 12 litres/hr.  Fuel remaining (again estimated only) is 656 litres.

Hence:

61 hrs x 12 litres/hr = 732 litres required.  We only have 656 litres remaining so we are theoretically 76 litres short.  Bearing in mind these are estimated numbers based on questionable quantities extracted through questionable means, my thoughts are that we should err on the side of caution.  

I mention this to Jim but he can only assure me that Berk says we have more than enough fuel.  No other substantiation other than Berk's say so.  I speak to Adam and explain my fuel calculations and he agrees they are pretty much irrefutable and so Adam also mentions to Jim.  Jim just says there's no cause for alarm and that we have plenty of fuel.  Perhaps there's a BP garage in the middle of the South China Sea?  Or maybe we can sidle up alongside one of the many oil rigs we've seen en-route and ask them to fill us up with diesel, low sulphur of course, whilst we stock up with crisps and Mars Bars in the shop.  I don't think so.

Early morning we're trying to salvage the damaged timber from the front of the boat again as it's been shaken loose by the weather again and Berk hadn't exactly made a good job of lashing the timber to the deck.

John decided to risk it and cooks a breakfast of bacon, sausage and egg sandwiches and I volunteered to help him with.  A decent, if a little messy cooked breakfast was well received by all.

After breakfast a pod of dolphins was spotted and that certainly raised my spirits - seeing dolphins in the wild is such an exhilarating experience, especially when you've only the sky, sea and 5 ugly crew members to look at all day.

Mid morning Berk is fuelling up again, transferring it from the drums to the tanks.  There's little improvement in the pump so there are the same problems as before - you would have thought he'd make more of an effort to fix the pump.  Like I say, I'm not a vindictive person (much) and I think Berk's suffered enough so I do what I can to assist from up on deck.  

Whilst filling up Berk must have had a Damascus Moment as I noticed we've changed direction and are now heading south-east.  I mention this to Jim who sheepishly says Berk has decided we won't have enough fuel to make it to Subic so we're now heading towards Bolinao where there's a port and fuel!  Apparently that's were we were heading for originally so there's nothing like sticking to a plan.

I cook lunch, consisting of spaghetti, tinned ham and pasta sauce - nothing too glamorous but filling and for me I feel a need to do something rather than just sitting around (or rather being thrown around)

In the afternoon, for want of something better to do, I take over from John with the fishing rod and actually manage to catch a small tuna, which wasn't big enough to eat so I threw it back and was criticised for doing so as John says I should have kept it to use as bait.

At this point the battery on my camera is getting dangerously low so I'm not taking too many photos, trying to conserve the battery for a special event (sinking, mutiny, a keel-hauling).

That evening Jim and me are on the 6pm to 9pm and 3am to 6am watch.

Our progress over the next 24 hours was as follows and shown in green:

Note the change in direction when we went from having plenty of fuel
to not having enough.