Singing in the rain

Escapada
Andreas Haas
Sat 5 Dec 2009 16:05
15.26.08N   048.59.77W
 
 
Life on ESCAPADA continues to rock and roll. We are already in the Caribbean weather zone, only 700  miles from St. Lucia. Yesterday and today the winds  have
been continuously changing speed and direction, while the temperature steadily climbed. Consequently, we are also seeing increased rain clouds and  experiencing
occasional squalls. This has made for some challenging sailing and periodic revision of our sail configuration.   We have very sophisticated communications
technology to receive weather reports. Through the satellite telephone we receive email weather reports from the ARC weather center and download GRIB files from
special weather sites. These are supposed to give us weather forecasts and outlooks for days ahead. Unfortunately, they have been wrong most of the time. Therefore,
we have relied on more proven technologies, like reading the clouds, the waves and being flexible to change and adapting accordingly.
 
The Parasailor came down in a hurry at sunset as a major squall was steadily creeping up behind us. We motored in an unsuccessful attempt to out maneuver it. When
it  finally slammed us in the back with gale force winds and heavy rain, we were ready!  We all had our shower gel and towels in hand in the cockpit, lathered up and
had a refreshing open-air shower while "singing in the rain". After a great seafood pasta dinner, we raised the Genoa which reliably and safely took us through the moonlit,
starry night. Today, the winds changed again, increasing in speed and changing direction.  We decided to seize this opportunity and do some racing and give our
competition a chance to eat our spray! . Up went the mainsail, out came the reef in the Genoa, on went the suncream and hoochy koochy rock and roll, we are blasting 
to the islands at over 7 knots.
 
 
                                                       
 
                                                     SHOWERING AND SINGING IN THE RAIN                            FULL MOON AND MOONPATH AFTER THE SQUALL