Squalls
I had forgotten the joy of what it was like having your living quarters under a 20-degree angle, or all of a sudden 22 and then back to 10. What it was like having the sink not drain, as all the water pools on the side and the drain is in the middle. What it was like to pour a cup of rice in a pan and all of a sudden, the angle changes, and the rice completely misses the pan and ends up all over the galley. What it was like pumping the toilet in vain, for there is no water coming in to flush the darn thing. What it was like trying to sleep behind a lee cloth, not to roll off the settee, but then almost fly over it on a bad bounce. Oh, what it was like…… and it is all coming back to me.
Squalls are mini storms that move across the water. Generally, a squall takes the form of a heavy cloud. As a rule of thumb, it will not be too severe if you can see the horizon underneath it. But if it has a full skirt blotting out the horizon, you are in for a soaking at the very least, and maybe a heavy wind as well. And generally, they don’t come alone!
I started my watch at ten last night, 10 knots winds, and we’re doing about 6. Ten minutes later, we’re looking at 27 knots winds, rain coming down as if there is no tomorrow, and a rather turbulent sea. All portholes closed, all hatches closed and tightened. I get help from the guys below. We take in the main sail, it’s on a roller system that stores it inside the mast, and we shorten the genoa, the sail up front, also on a roller system, rolling it halfway up. Twenty minutes later, we’re back to where we were and reverse all our actions, portholes, and hatches last.
That was my excitement for the evening. The rest of the night went off without a hitch. I think we were lucky we didn’t run into any other weather-related adversities, as the morning dawn revealed all sorts of cloud patterns and potential squalls around us. And they were coming for us! These squalls aligned themselves strategically, giving us no we out but the northeast.
We spent much of the morning trying to stay away from these dark clouds and were actually going northeast while we really wanted to go west. But after so many days floating on a mirror-like ocean, we were thrilled to be sailing and loving every minute of it.
After we left that weather system behind, it was great sailing all day and night. Excellent progress to the west.