Sun 17th May Part 2
Global Yacht Racing's EH01
Global Yacht Racing - sponsors: Caspian Services
Sun 17 May 2009 23:00
Stand in the shower and turn it on.. Now imagine it 100 times stronger with
the drops being 10 times their normal size. This was the squall we had this
morning. We could see its approach from the starboard side when it was
about 20 miles away....properly black cloud, right down to the surface of
the sea. As the rain approaches the boat the surface of the sea advances in
a white line. The sea is flattened out by the weight of water falling on
it...quite literally the waves cease to exist. All noise stops except for
the rain hitting our oilskin hoods and only a glance at the speedo shows we
are slicing through the water at 9 knots. Visibility is cut to a matter of
metres and then the rain eases and the squall passes overhead and you see
the white line racing away from you.
We were left with a squall to our left and a squall to our right and a line
of very low cloud joining the two. What seemed quite close was just a
sliver of daylight ahead. We were under some cloud canopy. I have never
seen a line squall from this perspective...normally they approach and then
engulf you.
You just won't see this real nature from your window. It is truely and
awesome sight.
Oh yeah, we had a pod of 50 or so dolphins come and have a look at us just
before this...they were swimming around the yacht, leaping from the side of
waves and generally looking like little torpedoes in the impossibly blue
water. And they taste just like tuna.
Justin