Luna Quest - Tuesday, 23rd February, 2016

Noon Position: 03.09S 36.50W

Daily run: 143 logged miles

No sooner had we posted yesterday’s blog entry, than the sun disappeared behind a thick layer of grey and darker grey clouds. Soon it began to rain and more rain, but the wind held, so our progress was not impeded. I decided to chance having a rainy wash in the cockpit with soap and shampoo, but the rain was not as dense as I would have liked it. The rain did not feel cold, but once wet and soaped, the wind brought a little chill. While waiting for the rain to rinse me clean, I utilised the time in the cockpit by washing the seats, but found that the shampoo kept seeping into my eyes, making the task a little uncomfortable. Other than my hair, I was soon thoroughly rinsed, so I went down below to use some of our precious water to finish off my hair.

During the afternoon squall followed squall with winds varying between 6 knots and 25 knots. The rain did not let up and down below it began to feel distinctly damp. All the windows were closed and the hatches ajar to have some ventilation. Julia was happy curled up in her bunk working on her iPhoto books, while I watched the weather, the gear and the sails. Late afternoon I heard somebody whistling and at first thought that Julia was celebrating a major iPhoto breakthrough, but looking at her, the whistling continued and then I thought it must have come from her computer, but she denied it, so I rushed up the companionway expecting to see pirates clambering on board, but there was none such evidence. Then a huge dolphin jumped out of the water and more dolphins were larking about our stern, some emitting the whistling sound that Julia now also heard. She rushed to get her camera and was just in time to take some snaps.

The squalls continued during the night and pushed us west on the Hydrovane, sometimes as far as 20 degrees below west, whereas our desired course was 305 (i.e. northeast)!

This morning the sun is trying to come through, but rain clouds are spreading on the horizon and I cannot help thinking about Papillon, the book by Henri Charrière, who wrote of sunshine in the morning and dense rain in the afternoon. Is that what we can look forward to on the next 2000 miles?

Eric