On passage - joys and travails

April 10, 2007 - Tuesday
We are just starting our 3rd day at sea. The first day didn't show much progress, but was easy enough. Our destination was directly into the wind, which means that we had to tack (zig-zag) to get there. But the waves were mellow and the wind was 12 knots, which is comfortable and fast enough.
The next day the wind started shifting (as predicted) and by afternoon, we were pretty close to our desired course. But when the sun set, we began our battle with squalls. A squall is a mini-thunderstorm with more wind, rain, and sometimes lightning. We can see them on the radar and visually, a dark black cloud with rain coming down under it. So for a while we dodged them, but finally they were so close together that we just had to sail on and take a pasting. We saw some amazing lightning - one group of flashes were right off our stern and were followed by thunder that sounded like the sky was being ripped. Most of the lightning was sheet lightning, but we did see a few bolts as well. We saw several that started up from the water into the cloud. The bolt was fat and pulsed about every second. The whole discharge lasted about 5 seconds. I don't ever want to be anywhere near that kind of energy! And the rain! Torrential! If we needed to trim the sails, we had to go outdoors and got soaked. Even in our "leisure suits", it was inconvenient. It got to where everything was wet. We kept tracking water in and out and a few times we left ports open by accident. It all resulted in a very large collection of wet stuff. The period from dark to midnight was one of the most loathsome nights I have ever spent at sea. Then at midnight, we sailed out of the rain and the trade winds started coming from a better direction so that we could go directly and quickly to our destination. Nice sailing! So the 2nd half of the night was really quite nice.
Today the wind has been favorable and the speed good. We have had some rain at times, but have made a lot of miles, averaging between 7 and 8 knots! For land people, that is good. We are in the Gulf Stream now and are getting a small lift from the current. Tomorrow, the wind is forecast to come behind us, which should let us get a bit more comfortable. Going upwind is a little like being an astronaut; you move from handhold to handhold and the motion is always trying to spill your drink. Getting the waves behind us will be grand. In the meanwhile, I dream of being dry - I mean Really Dry.