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Luna Quest - Friday, 26th February, 2016



Noon Position: 00.46N 42.39W

Daily run: 131 logged miles

Despite the late morning squall yesterday, Julia succeeded in making bread for the first time since leaving Salvador: 6 beautiful rolls and a loaf of bread. She also made dauphinois potatoes for lunch and dinner after we discovered that some of the spuds had begun to rot.There were not any major squalls in the afternoon, but there were several of them followed early night by a massive one with torrential rain and gale force winds pushing Luna Quest out of control of the Hydrovane. I had to grab the tiller and steer the boat by hand until Julia could mobilise the autopilot. To give us some peace in the night incase there were any more such squalls, we decided to leave the autopilot engaged and disable the Hydrovane, which just cannot cope with huge winds unless the sail area is reduced and commensurate with its steering power.

Late afternoon we were treated to a display of dolphins larking about the boat, jumping out of the water and racing Luna Quest. There must have been 20 or more of them including babies and adolescents. At 19.22hrs we crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere and shall have to get used again to seeing the sun pass over us to the South. Our deck light has ceased functioning, which will make any deck work at night a more hazardous affair.

This morning the northeast trade winds have been stable and we are hoping that we may have had the worst of the doldrums.

Eric

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