As days go a curate's egg with some memorable highlights

Date 1000 – Wednesday 27 July 2011 (UTC -4) We arrived back in En route we encountered Valsheeda under Spinnaker, at a distance. The
weather was thickening somewhat ominously but it was a splendid sight. We had been watching the developing weather off to leeward and
listening in to the NOAA weather warnings. Curiously the thunderstorms were
marching eastwards whilst we were sailing on a south easterly wind. This is not a happy sky. Sure enough the forecast 60 knot plus wind and hail arrived in a rush.
Thank you Mr Amel for roller furling on everything, enabling us to get
everything safely furled away as the wind rose. 10 minutes of winds of over 60
knots with a wind veer of over 90 degrees and torrential rain is an interesting
experience. We are not sure of the maximum wind speed as our windometer runs
out of imagination at 50 knots but it was hard on the stops for over ten
minutes which must be at least 60 knots. It is interesting to reflect that this wind speed is the highest that
we have experienced at sea in the thirteen months that we have been travelling. The interim stop at 50nm in the aftermath of the storm looked very uninviting
and as the wind after the shift was fair but on the opposite tack we decided to
press on fortified by an excellent curry from the freezer. As it was we were able to sail 90% of the 105 mile journey which in
this part of the world in summer is regarded as good. Creeping in to We have now hit 10,025 miles since leaving home – yet another
excuse to break out the rum ration. |