Sunday, Jan. 11th, 2015
Luna Quest
W. Eric Faber
Sun 11 Jan 2015 17:22
Daily Run: 125
Our preparations for the start of the Rally at 12 noon, yesterday, were compromised by a sudden and apparent failure of our fridge. Julia had to hold an order for vacuum packed meat on standby in case we would have to set off without a fridge, but a local engineer said that the fridge would be all right and so we put our trust in him and left the marina at Rodney Bay in great haste to be on time for the start. We were the very last to leave the marina at 11.40am. Just 13 boats were already jostling at the starting line and when I heard the gun shot at twelve, we were the first to cross it. Alas, when I looked round five minutes later, I realised that I had started before time! Never mind, we carried on, but soon the big boats in the fleet were catching us and within 20 minutes were showing us their stern and wake. It had been expected, Luna Quest being the smallest boat of the 14 that set off.
We were determined to get the sails set for the night and spent two hours toiling and sweating in the blazing sunshine to get both foresails out. At last they appeared set, but we were too exhausted to do anything about trimming them and would do that in the morning. Darkness comes fairly promptly at just after 6pm and vanishes promptly just after 6am. There was very little opportunity for sleep as the multitude of noises created by the rolling of the ship puts one on edge and gets one up frequently to identify their source.
Eric