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Quasar V of Lleyn - Thursday 24th January



Thursday 24th January


A MARVELLOUS NIGHT FOR A MOONDANCE


Bit of a late night and a fairly early morning! Lori is still buzzing from the disco and can't believe she is on a boat with its own disco lights!

8.30 arrives and so does our now chum, Victor from Regis Electronics. Work is done on the hydraulics by Malcy and at about midday they are confident its going to work. In the meantime Bob and Lori have decided to become fisherpersons and bought some tackle! We set off mid afternoon to find that the halyard for the second Yankee is loose and cannot be tightened under sail, so we retire to Marigot Bay for some flat water and less wind and
rapidly sort it out!


Eventually set off at 16:30 and after an hour or so pick up a decent breeze and we toddle along with the Twistle averaging just under 8 knots, reefing when necessary to keep the speed down generally below 9 knots (to avoid
overstraining the rig) and of course reefing it down for any squalls.

Cooking tonight is Bob assisted by Lori and we enjoyed the result, so much so that Malcy thinks I will soon be almost completely redundant on this yacht and relegated to cleaning the bilges, a job which he made his own on Quasar 1 in 1972! Those were the days!



JB writes: Yes, it is good to finally be at sea, underway and making way, having not enjoyed a particularly auspicious start to our round the world cruise. As I write we are approximately 150 miles west of St.Lucia (lat and long - 13 degrees 50 north, 63 degrees 36 west) and behind the fleet of World ARC yachts having left 28 hours after them due to various necessary repairs. But we are making good speed averaging 8/8.5 knots and in our first 24 hours should hope to have sailed 185 miles. The wind is a strong easterly wind, nudging Quasar along, with the waves perhaps being a little more aggressive, pushing Quasar's stern to port and then starboard. I believe the technical term for Quasar's movement through the waves is "yawing" but I like to think that Quasar has declined the waves invitation to dance and is instead dancing to the moons tune - for I must say it has been "a marvellous night for a moon dance"- as Van Morrison would croon. She (the moon) gracefully revealed herself from behind some dark clouds to our stern, and rose high in the sky, over the top of our mast (Lindsey tried jumping up to touch it at one point but was held back by her safety harness - Lindsey's mum take note - of her madness as well as her safety measures!). Just prior to the moon's arrival we were entertained with a beautiful sky sequined with an array of stars. It was truly breathtaking. Linds and I were intent on identifying various constellations, such as Cassiopeia, Orion - his belt, braces, feet, arms, arrow - even the twinkle in his eye. We saw Taurus, Gemini and the wonderful cluster of Pleiades. Our star gazing was briefly interrupted with us having to put in a few reefs but we maintained a good speed throughout the night - cweaming acrwoss the cwarribbean cwests as Jonathan Ross would put it.

Good night t'all! (JB)

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