Antigua to Bermuda - Day 2
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Thu 3 May 2012 21:44
Still high winds in the squalls along with high seas, by late afternoon
the boat was struggling to manage the waves and maintain her speed due to
the fact that we had to keep the sails heavily reefed because of the high
winds, which meant that we had to put the engine in tick-over to keep the
boat moving forward. The big excitement was a huge lightening storm! Now,
I am not really a wimp, but out int he ocean when you haven't seen
anything alive for the past 36 hours, except 1 bird and 1 flying fish, you
feel very small and vulnerable especially when the only metal thing that
the lightening can hit is your own 25 metre mast!!!! Added to this, we
were also by now in the midst of the Bermuda Triangle! The storm lasted
for about 6 hours, and we tried everything to get round it! We dropped the
sails so we could motor off the left and the storm followed us and stayed
right over our heads. We can see squalls clearly on the radar and this
one wasn’t moving or breaking up at all. We then tried to go 180 degrees
in the opposite direction but it followed us again. At this point we
started to feel a bit paranoid, and wondering whether the storm was
following our mast!! At this point John decided that the only option was
to motor hard through the middle of the storm on our original course and
hope for the best, and eventually we managed to break out on the far side,
having endured constant thunder and spectacular lightening - I can’t tell
you pleased I was to get out of this! We had taken some precautions, and
you might well laugh, but you definitely feel vulnerable out here. We put
the spare GPS and handheld radio, in the microwave - I knew I would find a
use for it one day! Scientists have proven that microwave ovens provide
protection on the basis that it works just like a Farraday cage. We also
put on our rubber soled deck shoes - just in case! At one point, bearing
in mind the Bermuda Triangle and it’s history, at one point we thought
that the radar had stopped working, so little difference did our dramatic
course changes make to the storm’s position right over our heads!
Once the storm passed, it was business as usual, and the weather and seas
calmed down again.
Distance so far - 304/945 miles