Ah Saturday, don't you just love Saturdays. I hope yours is better than ours. After my last post we hit the typical convergence zone stormy weather. The seas are moderate to rough. Bella Donna is going to need some tender loving care, TLC, once she hits the mainland. As the sea pounds her the beautiful redwood interior is complaining, but she is holding up well. We have continuous rain and 100% cloud cover. The barometer plummeted to 992. Starting at 10 PM last night John's watch is miserable. The constant lightning strikes start. John moves to pilot Bella Donna from the salon chart table where it is dry and safe from the dreaded lightning strike. Deborah starts watch at 2 AM at the chart table finding only the minimal electronic instruments are running; John is trying to protect some of them from the possibility we are struck by lightning. Our 110+ foot mast is waving in the sky saying catch me if you can. We do not have the chart plotter, radios, radar and navtex. All the hand helds are again in the microwave oven. We do have auto pilot and wind speed and direction, so we know what direction we are headed in and what the wind is doing. No sails are up; we are motoring, a stink potter until we clear this foul weather.
It is about 6 AM and as we all share morning coffee a streak of lightning traverses low in the sky above Bella Donna from one cloud to another. The wind speed, direction and depth instruments on the chart table instrument panel squeal and stop registering. A look at the top of the mast that is barely visible in the clouds, the wind speed equipment does not look damaged. Maybe they will resume working after the storm as they have before. In fact an hour later the depth instrument starts to register; however, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean it is so deep there is no meaningful reading. Now we are down to only knowing our compass heading. We don't know exactly where we are just that we are north of where we were an hour ago. It is a very good thing that we are not in a large cargo ship area.
After lunch the rain stops and there is a small patch of blue sky showing. The weather forecast indicates we will be in the convergent zone, doldrums, for another 24 hours. In five days the patch of ocean we just went through is to develop into severe thunderstorms. I am glad we will be long gone by then. Still very little wind; our diesel Genoa is moving us forward. A smaller sail boat might spend several days playing his sails milking the wind to make it through this area.
God Bless Bella Donna
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