It Really Is All About the Weather

With intermittent rain and wind squalls, winds 15 to 18 knots, we’ve have really been moving along in a good direction. Still the weather remains most challenging.

Tracking squalls is interesting. Most show up as black blobs on the radar which makes tracking and sometimes dodging them easier. It's the rain in the squall that shows up on radar. If it is just a wind squall, then the radar won't pick it up and the only warning is a sudden increase in the wind. And if it is a black watch, with no moon, then sometimes the only warning is that suddenly you can't see the stars anymore (big black cloud in the way....). Then it is time to grab a rain jacket and head back to the wheel to take over steering from the autopilot, if it gets too hairy.

Some nights there are no squalls, other times maybe one per hour. They are more prevalent at night due to a greater differential between the ocean temperature and the air temperature (Rob taught us that).

When squalls do hit, we are getting pretty good at “squall management.” Reef the sails, get ready, go through it, if it is 27 knots or less, and then run with it if the winds get to 30. They rarely last more than 20 minutes. Yet some do come up quite suddenly. I had one last night that didn't show up on the radar and then all of a sudden the winds went from 16 to 24 so I had to jump up, put on a rain jacket and get behind the wheel. Yet, it was over in 15 minutes. The day before we were hand steering through 30 knot winds and big, big rolling swells. That tends to focus your attention!

Thankfully, the weather changes. A lot, as you can tell! We’ve had a few great days now with lots of sun, medium winds and good progress. And - sorry - it’s been hot! We both went 10 days without ever putting on shoes - a new record.

We have passed the half way point in miles, days and psychologically. It is good to be in the home stretch!!!