Monday, 1st February, 2016

Luna Quest
W. Eric Faber
Mon 1 Feb 2016 12:04
Noon Position: 13.53S 28.12W

Daily run: 165 logged miles

A fresh breeze and a big fast running swell from the East helped Luna Quest make good progress yesterday. We have overtaken the boat in front of us (Allegro), who was at one point 40 miles ahead, but who is now 12 miles behind. It is all a matter of where the wind is. Wayward Wind is 120 miles ahead (she has a massive new genneker from Cape Town) and is likely to make landfall on Friday with Allegro and Luna Quest bringing up the rear on Saturday, 5 days behind the first arrivals today. The World ARC organisers had expected the first boats to arrive on January 26th, but a lack of wind has put this back by 4 days. Perhaps the entire schedule will be shifted back. We may just catch the tail end of the Brazilian Carnival.

Every day is a joy to sail with gentle to fresh breezes from behind, reasonably clear skies, deep blue seas and the occasional white cap popping up here and there. We have given up on using the parasailor. It takes too long to get it up and it is always in a mess when we get it down. It really needs three people to handle it. We have stowed it away and will regularise it once we are in Salvador. The rig that we use day after day is the two poled foresails: the genoa poled to one side and the staysail to the other. From time to time we swap them round if it suits the direction of the wind, which varies between East and SE. For steering we use the Hydrovane, which needs no food, no sleep and no talking to, a most wonderful piece of equipment. It has served the boat for the last 10 years without fail.

Eric