God bless Bella Donna and its great crew, John and Deborah. The area of the ocean near the equator is unpredictable. Last night just before dark we were approaching an area of lightning as we had the past two nights. We were watching the sky above and in front of Bella Donna for stars as sailing under a cloud can bring high winds. With stars visible the apparent wind speed increased from the usual 17-18 knots to 25; we reduced the Genoa. Quickly the wind increased to 30+ knots; we furled the Genoa and took in on the Stay sail. The wind quickly increased to 34-35 knots; we reduced the Stay to a minimal non-driving amount and depowered the 2 reefed Main sail. With the boom now all the way to port and no Stay to speak of Bella Donna is healing a little with a speed over ground from 8.5 to 9 knots. The wind now gusts from 36-40 knots. With no stars visible, nothing but darkness, no radar echo and frequent lighting with no thunder ahead, John decides it is best to take the Main sail down. This is not easy Deborah must keep Bella Donna head to wind according to the now port side boom while John climbs the mast and downs the main securing the halyard. The wind gusts, sea and the massive forces we are dealing with on a vessel as large as Bella Donna make this exceedingly hard. However, Deborah and John coordinate the moves without talking as the wind is howling. The left hand and the right hand know their job and do it well. The good news is the sudden bad storm was not active long enough to generate high angry seas and the lightning although threatening above in the clouds was not striking down to the water very often. If we were struck it would be fate. The critical electronic hand held devices were in the microwave with the circuit to the microwave disabled. We huddled in the salon to wait out the worst of the storm.
This morning the sky is beautiful blue with puffy white small cumulus clouds. It is a morning much like or better than days past. The small cumulus clouds will grow larger and darker as the heat of the day wears on. At dusk when they are giants and the cooling winds meet them there may be another storm. This is what being near the equator is like.
Other news is we sighted our first vessel off our starboard. Being that it is estimated to be 3 to 4 miles away and not showing on radar we try to raise it on VHF 16; we get no reply. It looks like a sailboat with no running lights, just a single bright white light.
Just got the latest weather forecast, we have 3 days of probable thunderstorms in the evening ahead of us.
God Bless Bella Donna
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1 comment:
Tom ... glad to hear all is well so far ... am saying some prayers that all will continue to be well until your arrival in Hawaii.
Judy in Houston, TX
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