Mayday

A few things have happened.

I think I took another indirect lightning strike. I forgot to mention in my last log but yesterday noticed that my batteries were unusually flat. After a bit of inspection I realized that my solar panels were not putting out any electricity. When I looked at my solar charge controller display it looked alien. The readout looked like it was written in Klingon. I pulled the controller out and wired the panels directly to the battery and got electricity. Thank God it didn’t burn up my panels. Also my sea temperature is reading 127.5F degrees, I put my hand in the water and it felt more like 80.

At 0216 this morning I was woken up by my VHF crackling. I was instantly annoyed as I had to get up from my rare scraps of sleep. Just as I was about to turn the squelch up I thought I herd the word help, and insted turned it down. It was “Saraban” trying to reach me for help. I could hear a woman’s voice but she could not hear me. I was frustrated. “I need more powerful VHF with a direction finder” I thought! I could hear panic in her voice. I lit up the radar and spent 5 minutes trying to find them by fine tuning it in different ways. I was looking for flairs but saw nothing in the dark sea. “I have to take a guess” I thought! I changed course to the west, “perhaps they started making their way west earlier”? “I need to shorten the distance between our radios”. Within 10 minutes I had them on the VHF. They had run into a huge tree floating at sea. “Not a log, a huge tree with branches and all”. They were trying to break free from it but it was caught under the keel. After another 15 minutes they managed to break free by reversing out and reported that they no longer needed my assistance. I changed my course back to SSW. I spoke to them this morning and they are fine, not taking on water.

I really should have a more powerful VHF and direction finder. I was going mad trying to find them, what if they were sinking and I couldn’t help, or never found them?

It was hard to fall back asleep with the adrenaline pumping through my veins but managed to fall back asleep at around 04:30 and got a few more hours sleep.

By looking at the chart it finally looks like I’m making way.

Cheers everyone.

Alex

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