Thursday, 13.8.15
Luna Quest
W. Eric Faber
Thu 13 Aug 2015 04:12
Daily run: NA
Cairns marked our first stopover without work being carried out to the boat. Instead, we took a cable car into the mountains to visit Kuranda village, taking an old fashioned diesel train back in the afternoon. As the weather was very clear, the views were breathtaking going up and breathtaking coming back. The track, constructed by the Brits in the 1920s is narrow gauge skirting deep gorges and passing waterfalls. The carriages from the 1930s are maintained to the highest standard including the service we enjoyed in first class.
Today the trade winds are back with a vengeance giving us strong breezes from the South and Southeast. We set sail at 10.30 today and instead of using the Hydrovane, we are testing our new Autopilot in 25 knots of winds. It seems to cope very well with a third reef in the mainsail and a couple of rolls in the genoa. We are particularly curious to find out how our batteries are going to cope with the power consumption. Our three power sources are doing their utmost (solar, wind and towed aqua) to keep up. So far so good.
Eric