Tuesday, 22nd September, 2015

Luna Quest
W. Eric Faber
Tue 22 Sep 2015 08:10
Noon Position: 11.43S 98.54E

Daily run: 135 logged miles

Not a cloud in the sky, night and day, a hot sun overhead, stars as far as the eye can see and a blue moderate sea with occasional white caps are the component parts of our Indian Ocean universe. The wind continues to hold steady and today’s distance to Cocos Keeling is 120 miles from our noon position. We aim to arrive in the morning so that we may see the reefs and bommies in the shallow lagoon of the atoll during daylight hours as we approach the anchorage in the lee of Direction Island, one of the three islands that form the atoll. The other two are Home island and West island at 2 and 5 miles distance from the anchorage. Direction Island is small and deserted and one has to go by dinghy to the other islands for contact with the world.

We are carrying a full mainsail to starboard and a poled-out genoa to port before an ESE 14kn breeze. An occasional big rogue swell starts a roll for Luna Quest, backing the mainsail. As the swell passes, it bangs back into its former position giving the boat a thorough shake and vibration throughout. It would have been easy to cure by steering a little off course, but we need to maintain our course to be sure to arrive in Cocos Keeling in the morning…

Eric