What a fun night! 9:03.87N 126:30.44W

Moondance
Alex Belmont
Wed 20 Jul 2011 18:15
blagh. Pouring rain all last night while we beat into shifty, squally south
winds and confused seas. Watches consisted of poking your head out of the
companionway every 5 minutes to look for ships, ducking back inside to dry
off, and then waiting another few minutes to get soaked again. During Kim's
watch we got hit by a sudden gust in a squall and got knocked over pretty
far. Kim eased the main immediately and Orianne came right back up with no
fuss. Apparantly we went over pretty far though. A speaker was thrown from
Martin's bunk, across the cabin and somehow up about two feet to land on the
galley counter. Many things now litter the cabin sole: onions, wet clothes,
books, a hiking boot, pens, part of a bag of spilled millet, two crewmembers
who decided the floor was a more comfortable place to sleep, etc. A real
mess.
Well at least we are almost through the doldrums. Hopefully... Gribs are
showing ITCZ to be very narrow and north currently, and our meteorologist,
Lauri (if you're reading, thank you. You have helped immensely.), tells us
that another TC off the Mexican coast will pull the ITCZ further north in
the next day or two. We seem to be getting super lucky in regards to
crossing the doldrums. Rain sucks, but I guess it's better than being
becalmed for weeks or having to motor.