Phuket to Sri Lanka - Day 3
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 6 Mar 2012 05:30
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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
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