St. Helena to Grenada - Day 17
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 29 Jan 2013 15:04
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06:31.878N 45:26.785W
January 29, 2013
Miserable.
We can't think of a better word to describe the past 24
hours, so we'll go with miserable. The sun never made it past a glimmer
yesterday afternoon, the glimmer fast replaced by ugly black rain clouds that
dumped rain almost continuously for 21 out of the last 24 hours. Just as
one giant rain system finished with us, another stepped in to take its
place, at times leaving only a few minutes between thrashings. Winds were
a little higher this time, reaching 33 knots. Not bad, but like the rain
storms of the past few days, these bent the wind to the east
and southeast, causing us to point toward Newfoundland with each passing
storm. We like Canada, and very much enjoyed our voyage through Canadian
waters back in 2007, but we really don't want to go there right now. We've
been through lots of rain squalls over the years, but a rain squall appears,
does its thing, and then moves on. These behemoths stick
around and torture us.
To add insult to injury, we picked up a negative current
yesterday that reached a peak of 2.5 knots last night during the worst of the
rain. When this happened, our faces turned as black as the rain
clouds. It's good it was dark during our night watch changes
so neither one of us noticed the other's nasty glower. It's hard to
say whose was uglier. However, when the large battery charger quit
working, Don's glower might have been the ugliest.
We've decided it's not just a curse of the sea gods. No,
it's bigger than that. The entire universe has aligned against us (or at
least the northern half of it).
Ok. Enough doom and gloom - time to move on to
something more positive.
We've had to swallow our pride and officially revise
our arrival estimate to Monday (2/4) instead of Sunday.
Hmmm, that's not really positive, is it?
How about this:
The dead flying fish count reached a new high last
night of 22. They were definitely not drunk this time. They
just couldn't help being tossed up on Harmonie's decks in
the chunky sea and rain. Several ended up in the cockpit and had to
be flushed down the gutter and out to sea with the fresh water hose. The
rest weren't so lucky - all spending their last minutes crammed up against some
obstacle on deck, which kept them from rejoining their friends in
the sea. This isn't really positive either, is it? The flying
fish do have a lovely silvery-blue color though, so maybe that qualifies
them for the silver-lining category. Hmmmm.... unfortunately, their
lovely silvery-blue color fades fast to dark gray (matching the sky) in a
jiffy after they suffocate.
Or this:
The other two smaller battery chargers can handle the charging
load, so all is well on that front. Investigation into the large battery
charger's problem will have to wait until after our arrival.
Or this:
The negative current has decreased to a more reasonable
(but still irritating) 1.5 knots.
Ah, now this is positive:
Our great nephew Robbie's kindergarten class has been
following our progress. Several times a week we receive an email from
their kind teacher filled with questions from the kids. Who wouldn't smile
when a five-year old asks where we got our big boat, how we take a shower, or
how many times we have to get up and look at the sails at night?
2,730 miles down, 1,021 miles to go.
(148 disappointing, but hard-won progress miles for Day
17)
Anne
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