All change - and change again

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 14 Nov 2013 16:26
24:30.63N 64:38.65W

Thursday 14th Nov, Day 10, 1,265 miles sailed, approx 350 miles to go.

Bugger - we are still here, I just cannot believe that for all these years I
thought Startrek was a documentary.

So Wednesday stayed pretty much as advertised, the seas were very
uncomfortable and with the underlying 20 knot SW wind, they just kept
growing and clashing with the big Atlantic swell from the SE. Bit like
riding on the longditudinal bench seats in the back of a Land Rover speeding
across a ploughed field. And try living 24/7 or typing in that!

The squalls kept coming all day, but we did get pretty lucky as they
sometimes passed us by and generally did not contain winds much over 30
knots tops. What was wearing us down was the knowledge that this might be
the situation for a further 24 hours still. Impossible really to get
anything done and you can only concentrate on the basics. Sarah prepared a
nice saled for lunch but the effort did for her and she had to forgo hers
and lie in a bunk for a few hours to recover.

Around 1800 hours we sensed the wind was easing and wondered what was in
store next. Blue Sky, the catarmaran that had been sailing near us over the
past two days had eased ahead and we no longer could see them on radar or
raise them on the VHF, so we were once again alone it seemed.

'Serafina, Serafina - This is One Two, One Two, do you copy - over?'

Our guardian angel was out there listening and looking out for us. We
chatted to One Two, who we had not heard from since just after we left
Ruffian several days (weeks?) ago. They had just seen our AIS signal pop up
on their chart plotter and so had called us from 12 miles away. They were
about to listen to the evening weather broadcast and would try to speak to
Chris Parker and find out what was in store next for us both.

15 minutes later they were back with astonishing news. The wind where we
were, was about to reduce and clock round to the west giving us an easier
ride and flatter seas overnight. There were squalls around, but they were
merely going to be light rain showers and nothing dramatic. Then in the
morning on Thursday we could expect the wind to go North and reduce to 10
knots until the evening when the NE trades would pick up and drive us
happily directly towards the BVI's at 15 to 20 knots. Happy Happy Days!

It is remarkable how the simplest bit of positive news breaks the spell and
our spirits soared and we sat planning Thursday's activities which included
showers, airing the boat, drying stuff out and perhaps even a spot of
fishing. Of course it did not turn out like that at all - but did we really
beleive it would?

In fairness and with the startling clarity of hindsight, nobody had actually
mentioned a crystal clear starlit night free of light pollution and a balmy
hot summer's day to follow, we just pencilled that bit in I guess...

As darkness fell the full moon vanished immediately behind huge banks of
black venomous clouds and the radar picked out the first of the
'light'squalls which hit us around 2100 hours. The thing is that we probably
define 'light'slightly differently from the Americans. Here 'light' was
being used in the same way American restaurants talk about a light meal' -
which feeds two adults with leftovers to take away. The rain was torrential
and unceasing although the wind element was not too severe. I came on watch
at 2300 hours and spent 4 hours watching a squall 8 miles wide and 5 miles
deep very slowly overhaul us from behind and it finally reached us 5 minutes
before Sarah was due on deck. No you are all wrong, I did the decent thing
and let her sleep on, oblivious to the unbelievable volume of rain pouring
down onto us (me) and the lively 30 knot breeze.

Sarah took over at 0400 hours and suffered a similar fate, but did a good
job of avoiding another one later. Then after dawn the wind began finally
to clock round to the north and joy of joys, made it all the way to the NE.
Now at last we were on a broad reach, flying along still heavily reefed, but
pointing directly at the Virgin Islands, still some 350 miles distant. But
the squall/rain clouds have turned out to be magnetic in some strange way
and both 'One Two' and ourselves have our own 6 mile by 5 mile personal rain
factories parked over each of us. The rainstorm is travelling at exactly
the same speed as us, and in exactly the same direction and you would think
that it must run out of rain at some point - but no, it just keeps making
the bloody stuff and dumping it on us!

At 0900 hours we got the the latest weather update via 'One Two' and this
brought the usual mixed news. We are evidently running directly underneath
the trough which is happily travelling south with us. This means we stay wet
(read very wet) but it also means we keep the favourable wind. Ahead of us
the boats have run completely out of wind and are having to motor, so if we
go too fast now, we may out-run the favourable wind and be faced with just
10 knots, but we have Flossie to help deal with that so we are feeling a
good deal better about things now plus the seas are flatter, just the usual
big rollers and so life is looking up at last.

We both had showers this morning (first in 5 or 6 days) Bliss! There is
also a patch of lighter sky ahead - but out in the deserts I think these are
called mirages and in our present world we call them 'false dawns'.