First squall of the trip!
0454 UTC | 03 26.44’S 148 52.25’W
Sailing
Our wisest and spryest member on the group, Jim, has a message for his wife in today’s blog! This morning we got our first squall of the trip. An uncommonly swift watch changeover was had just before sunrise this morning, I thought maybe they just want to get to bed - until making it on deck to Jim’s opening remark of ’We’re gonna get our ass whooped’.
Instead of a glorious sunrise to greet us, a big ol stretch of dark cloud with no horizon visible was approaching us. We had been motoring for a couple of hours at this point so whilst I didn’t relish the thought of the downpour, happily for us it also marked the start of a breeze line and we’ve been sailing semi the right direction since. Jim, Joey and Kip - a.k.a. Sea Section/NotTea/The Reefers (their watch name changes daily) - worked quickly to get some reefs in the main, had just about time to pop on a waterproof jacket and hurriedly close all our hatches before the heavens opened. This lasted a couple of hours until the breeze settled and the sun came out, the slumbering crew below blissfully unaware of the action until they saw our soggy coats hanging to dry.
The ITCZ (doldrums) is proving to be quite a large area at the time of our crossing, we’re gearing up for 3-4 days of motoring unfortunately, so we’re eking the most out of the wind we have now. We do know we’re considerably further east that Hawaii, don’t worry we’re not shooting for Alaska quite yet - we’re simply setting ourselves up to not be close hauled when we hit the north east trade winds, currently aiming for a reasonable 60-70AWA!
Neptune is set to visit us soon, a message in a bottle from him was found floating behind the boat at happy hour today. Phoebe and I are the only shellbacks on board at the moment, so it’ll be a busy equator ceremony with 9 pollywogs to initiate!
Joey’s birthday is tomorrow, after some initial upset that we wouldn’t make it to the equator on his birthday, we’ve now reasoned that what better way to start off your 4th decade than crossing the equator the day after!!
Many glows (horizon to horizon stars, the end of the sea sickness, lovely company, awful jokes etc), few glums.
Enough waffle from me, here’s Jim:
"Hi Babe! Well you were right!! There is water to the left,right,behind and forward and it’s beautiful! The first few days of warm windy sailing were interrupted with a little bit of calm and then wow, we encountered a nice rain storm this morning. In a dash below decks for rain gear, before the downpour, netted only the rain jacket. The rain boots and pants remained safe and dry in duffels :) But it was a blast helming in the rain and the scene of the approaching cloud, the rain and the sun trying to peek up through the clouds was awesome. Pants and shoes soaked, wiping the rain droplets from the compass and taking in some much appreciated coolness from the wet breeze. Yep! Water everywhere Darling, just like you said. Please give the grandkids a hug for me and tell’um Grandpa Jim is sailing with some very nice folks and having fun. Blog is just like the radio telephone on Powell Babe: sooo Love, Jim"
Mary
View more passage logs
Seasickness
But maybe, I thought, with some drugs I could stay ahead of it. The first 48 hours I felt horrible. But luckily with 3 health care professionals on board and in a very encouraging environment, my body found its way. Anyway, someone offered me a patch (unavailable in Canada) and someone else gave me some pills for nausea and now I feel much, much better.
Dolphins and Bioluminescence
We had a good run with the sails but weather has changed and we are once again chasing the wind. Everyone is getting a chance to practice helming in big swell; starting to get a feel of the wind and water and how it pushes and pulls the hull. A pod of dolphins came to visit at night, splashing in the bioluminescent water, and again in the day, dancing in the bow wake. For now enjoying the calmer sea state and falling asleep to the rumble of the engine and the gentle whooshing of the water on the hull.
Greetings from Lala Lemonshark
The brave crew is toughing it out and staying cheerful despite being tossed around. The engine is off and we are true sailing-main and jib. In the first 12 hours we saw two pods of Orca and four humpback whales, two of which were 20 yards off the starboard beam!