Walkabout - Rain Stops Play - Day9 Mindelo to Grenada

Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Mon 29 Nov 2021 11:05
There was a hastily convened meeting of the Meteorological Society yesterday afternoon at about 1600 (Walkabout time). Our ‘country members’ (Ade & Bev) sent a text to update the latest weather. There then followed a few texts, which confirmed that action was required. I had hoped that we were going to see a whole day through without the need to change sails - but no. The message and decision was clear. Stronger winds expected overnight, with potential squalls. I can tell you that the forecast was spot on!

The decision was made and we jumped into action. Swapping from the poled out BWR, to main with 3 reefs and poled out Genoa. Set up for dead down wind, and able to control sail area of the Genoa easily from the cockpit. The job was done in about an hour. Foredeck cleared of the BWR and G1 which were flaked in their bags. Within the next half hour we experience our first squall. On the edge of it, but heavy rain and a big wind shift with sustained gusts of 22 knots. The new sail set up was perfect. Well balanced, and the Hydrovane handled it perfectly, through the shifts and gusts. We had acted just in time. Thanks so much to our ‘country members’ for spotting the change.

What followed overnight and into this morning has painted a very different picture of Atlantic sailing to what we have experienced so far. Sleep has become very mixed up, as we decided we should both be on deck when any squalls hit. And hit us they have…

At about 0800 this morning we could see on the radar a huge squall heading straight for us (catching us up from behind). It hit us fair and square. Big shifts, 28knots sustained gusts, torrential rain, hand steering required to keep us on track. It lasted nearly half an hour. Traci steered through most of it, and was completely drenched (with the slight benefit that it is warm rain). At the end she poured about an inch of water out of her boots! But we came through it well. The new sail set up working brilliantly.

It was really good to have a call on the VHF from ExitOne just afterwards. They are a few miles away from us, and saw this monster engulf us on their radar, and they were calling to check that all was ok.

Looks like this type of weather will be with us for a few days now, so we had better get used to it.
During the very dark night, you can’t see the sea around, all you hear is the roar of the waves and swell as they sweep by.

Yesterday we had very little AIS contact with any boats, but this morning there are 8 boats within 18 miles of us.

With the Ashes starting, things could be a bit tense on an Aussie/English boat, but we put all that to one side. A good recommendation if you want a laugh-out-load bit of TV - watch ‘The Front Bar’ on YouTube. Ashes specials I am sure. Brilliant Aussie humour - thanks to Joan for the recommendation.

This weather is driving us nicely in the right direction for Grenada. Looks like we could be arriving on Saturday pm, or Sunday am. (Has anyone get that book running yet??). We will arrive into Port Louis Marina at the SW of the island.

For dinner last night we went veggie - Bean burgers, potato tortilla, peppers and chorizo (OK - nearly veggie).

That’s all - better get back to drying our gear out.
A&Tx

PS Looks like Fishing Club is cancelled due to inclement weather (and continued incompetence of it’s members), and Cookery club could get messy!!