The crew of Ruffian are up to it, that I know, but this is a new test-light air. Hope they get the winds. Here is yesterdays blogpost from SERAFINA nearby. Interesting to read the symptoms of the Volvo and the email of schematicals etc. all out at sea between 2 nearby boats. Although highly skilled sailors, I don't think Iain(Ruffians mechanic) is a "jury rigger" as many of us are.

I am also afraid, RUFFIAN, a fast sailor in strong winds, is a bit anemic in light air as she's typical "loaded for cruising" weight. They do have light air sails, specifically a spinnaker( they are decades worn ocean racing crew members). The drama continues,....

From Rob Bell on SERAFINA---

"The never ending story
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29:33.33N 67:56.63

Monday 11th Nov

Nothing straightforward about this passage for sure!

Sunday was generally light wind which is not our best suit, but as soon as
we hoisted Flossie we set off at a pace, only to have to take her down again
in the unpredictable squalls. We found ourselves pulling away from Ruffian
generally which was not part of the plan as we had offered to stay with them
for the rest of the trip south. In the late afternoon, Ruffian called us and
the catamaran 'One Two' to tell us that their engine was pretty much shot
and after only two hours running was seriously overheating and pumping
seawater out through the top of the freshwater header/expansion tank and
filling the bilges. They said that they would just have to sail the whole
way come what may and felt that it was very unfair to expect us to stay with
them the whole way especially during the days of nil or very light winds
etc. We on Serafina came up with a compromise and we are going to use
conservative sail plans to ensure that we continue to sail 'sedately' on our
way, which means that Ruffian which is smaller, but fast in certain wind
conditions would probably not ever get left very far behind. We agreed a
daily email exchange at 1100 hours AST and assured them that if they needed
any assistance we would only be a few miles away and would immediately turn
round and be there.
'One Two' put their multi-talented crew member Tom on the radio. He had so
far today, caught a 45lb Wahoo, gutted it, filleted it and cooked some and
frozen the rest (nearly 20lbs of meat) but he was also a helicopter
mechanic! He chatted with Iain and Fiona on Ruffian about their problem and
also downloaded the engine manual via a sat phone (the engine on Ruffian is
25 years old...) and then came up with a solution involving routing sea
water through the entire cooling system as a get out of jail fix. But sadly
this involved some surgery and parts that Ruffian felt were beyond them and
had to thank him for his help, but returned to plan A which is to keep
sailing the whole way. 'One Two' have pressed on now, but we are pottering
along so as to not get too far away from Ruffian."