Fire on board the Pakea

The navigator Unai Basurko yesterday took a good scare on board the Pakea. In one of the so many moments of the day in which it consults navigation charts, Unai approached the letter table to continue positioning itself; it ignited the computer and it suddenly left a flame the battery. Basurko, perplex, cut the electrical provision quickly and next it used a rag and his own hands to even extinguish the flames that had extended to the papers of the letter table.
 
In few seconds the cabin of the Pakea filled of a thick black smoke that gave off a scent very hard. And it is that when the fires are electrical, as in this case, the smoke that accompanies the flame he is really dense and by far scent. Adverse the meteorological conditionses that reigned then were so grotesque that Unai could not abrir to ventilate later until long short while. The cabin still smells of smoke and until it probably does not enter the South Atlantic, it will not be able to ventilate the Pakea all the necessary one.
 
The mishap could have been but serious, since the fleet in the rear of this second stage of the Velux 5 Oceans, sails for weeks in one of the extreme zones but of the world.
 
The inclemencies of the time have been let notice: The Pakea has been holding the passage of forts fronts throughout all the week.
 
The sea and the wind always predominating of direction W have been very strong, accompanied by an enormous and mountainous sea. From time to time a wave of very treacherous direction S is crossed, as he himself skipper commented to us. These situations displace the boat and it makes him undergo forts blows by the waves against the helmet. Besides not leaving anything in its site within the boat.
 
The zone where at the moment they sail is like a freeway since the fronts happen continuously in a same direction. The wind rolls are very not pronounced but the sudden ascents of intensity, having been able to sail comfortably with 25-30 wind knots and raising this, without previous warning, up to 50-60 knots. Accompanied normally by showers with hail.
 
The day's work in this zone struggles between taking to the Trinqueta Euskaltel and three curls in the major, until the wind gets worse of such form that forces to him to flood the major and to only sail with solent. On the other hand, at the end of the last week, the Pakea underwent a breakage of average meter and in baluma of Genoa. This tear, around the second crosspiece, is unutilised the candle until it a little while finds of calm where to be able to fix the flaw, since he is material indispensable for the zones of little wind.
 
To part of Genoa, the Pakea sails without the arms of the wind equipment, which lost the past week. In one of the so many storms that have shaken the boat, first the vane of the knob of the wood disappeared and later the one of stern. This failure eliminates one of the two possibilities of operation of the autopilots, that is to say, option of sailing to wind.
 
On the other hand the Pakea, like the “Insurance Saga”, cannot receive the weather messages. In this case it is due to the lack of cover of the system by the distant zone of the world where one is. Unai commented to us that it goes completely without information. That it has his studied route, but that without the parts it is at the mercy of the storms.
 
Basurko knew conditions very clearly were going them to be adverse and although as the same says “the accumulated fatigue also is let notice in the boat” continues this day's work in third position and with the very high moral: “Each mile that balance sheet I am but near house”.