Around 9:00h in the morning I hit the MOB button on the Chartplotter and call Isabelle on deck pronto! She was awake anyway. We turn the boat and drop the sails. Searching franticly we do a zig zag course over the track. But nothing!

All and all it didn’t took more than 10 minutes to get into the MOB position, but still we can find it. My beloved Tilly Hat! Now some dolphin is playing with it and I am stuck without a hat. I wish Wilhelm Greiff (ARC Safety official) had insisted on having my hat wear a life vest. Although I don’t think adding a whistle would have helped much. I hope the ARC will add this little item on the Safety Check list next year.

Yannick slept through this entire ordeal which is amazing since a lot went on above his head on the forward hatch. Anyway it was a great MOB exercise. Goes to show again, don’t leave the boat while sailing.

The rest of the day went by without incident. At noon we read stories from Nutmeg, Tatt av Vinde and Windancer finding themselves in some serious squalls. Until now we have been lucky partly because our mighty navigator Isabelle tries to steer us well clear of the major hotspots. Using UGRIP is a great help since we see where there is a lot of rain. Rain usally means Squalls around here.

This morning at 05:00H however Yannick woke me. ¨I think we are heading in a squall¨ And indeed, the radar clearly showed a massive squall coming toward us. I decided to head south to avoid it and that worked very well. Strangely enough the squall just disappeared after it had passed us.

At 9:00h Isabelle saw another squall on the radar, dead ahead and coming towards us. I always thought Squalls went downwind but this one defied the rules. It was even bigger than the other one and we are still in it. We missed the front so the wind didn’t bother us. It just down poured, that’s all.