Phuket to Sri Lanka - Day 3

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 6 Mar 2012 05:30
7:39.602N  93:52.239E
 
March 6, 2012
 
We are sailing west beautifully at the moment - 8 knots with an 18 knot NNW wind.  Nice, except that I have to nearly stand on my head to type this as we are heeled more than we normally like to be.  We are 30 miles east of the Nicobar Islands (owned by India, populated by indigenous people - boaters are not allowed to stop there), and trying to make a waypoint centered in the channel between two the islands.  At this pace, we should be there in a few hours.
 
This lovely sailing started 12 hours ago (midnight last night), after a huge area of thunderstorms finally cleared out of the area.  Before that, however, we struggled with thunderstorms on and off for about 12 hours.  The worst we've ever encountered happened when we were diligently skirting the northern side of one large t-storm line (per instructions from Bruce), and a second large t-storm line appeared to the north, continuing to move toward us until we were squashed between the two.  What ensued was wind (not too bad with only a spike for a moment to 30 knots), torrential rain and the most frightening lightening we've ever been surrounded by.  The trouble was we couldn't tell which way to get out of the storm because the visibility was so bad even our radar couldn't tell us anything.  We finally decided to motor very slowly to the south, and the storms passed over us as they moved southwest. Shew!  That was no fun at all.  Didn't help that it happened at night.
 
Oh well, according to Bruce, we are pretty much done with thunderstorms and although it is completely overcast today, tomorrow should be fine weather.
 
All is well with captain and crew - we are enjoying a proper sail (it's been too long!) in spite of the tilt.
 
Cheers -
Anne