Wednesday, 14 Jan. 2015

Luna Quest
W. Eric Faber
Wed 14 Jan 2015 16:19
Noon Position: 13.11N 71.18W

Daily run: 165 miles

After a cracking sail yesterday, the wind seems to have abated, which we are glad of since we are nearing the headland of Colombia, where the winds accelerate into a current counter to the northeasterly equatorial current, which sets up a nasty chop of a sea in windy conditions. With a bit of luck we may arrive in Santa Marta on Saturday.

Our fridge has packed up. Luckily, it is a top loader, so that it will keep cooler for longer. Unfortunately, its malfunction has drained the batteries to 10.5 volts, so that today we have switched everything off to give them a chance to recharge fully by solar power. Great excitement was had last night when a ship was sighted, but did not appear on our new AIS B transponder. It gave us an opportunity to get familiar with the new gadget, a Watchmate as it is called, which carries with it a substantial operating instruction manual, which guided me through a myriad of options and sub-options. Our old AIS, which is still installed, picked the ship up easily.

Julia is back in the cockpit and has put the gate up (i.e. the wash board) and on no condition am I allowed to enter her private domaine. She slept in it last night using my sleeping bag to chase the chill away. She said that it would not get wet, but a wayward wave visited the boat splashing its salt water around the cockpit area.

Eric