Luna Quest - Thursday, 1st October, 2015

Noon Position: 13.04S 89.31E

Daily run: 136 logged miles

Last night was quite frustrating with the sails banging in the lighter winds. In the end we reefed the sails to give them less surface area to bang about. Once the swell had settled, however, the banging reduced and the speed increased. While we were adjusting the sails, I noticed that the aquagen was not spinning. I hauled it in to discover that the bearings felt seized. It is an Ampair towed water generator that I bought new last year especially for this circumnavigation. It has only given us power since Mackay as until we reached Australia, it had been wired up incorrectly by the engineers in Trinidad. I took it apart this morning to diagnose a frozen front bearing, which, unfortunately, cannot be probed.

Luckily, we retained the old Aquagen, which, not expecting it to be used again, had been deeply buried in the most forward locker in the forepeak. This meant having to clear out the entire foc’sl (forecastle) to find it, but by noon we had the old one back on and wired up correctly. We use the aquagen at night to keep the lights and fridge on, whereas the Ampair generator was powerful enough to use the auto helm as well.

Today is a hot, muggy day with a thinly overcast sky. The wind is light and our progress slow. Schools of flying fish skim across the surface at great speed, probably pursued by predators.

Eric