Day 6 - Squalls!

Date: June 9, 2007
Location: s/v Liberty,
Position: 30 20.38 N 053 47.2 W

We were obviously getting much too comfortable so the weather gods decided to give us a little excitement. During Julie's night watch she noticed quite a large area of weather activity dead ahead on the radar. She kept tracking it as it got closer and closer, finally she decided to wake up Carter to come and take a look. It's always good to get a second opinion. Luckily we ended up sailing right through the radar 'mass' with no rain or high winds.

Later on this morning we noticed a huge area of dense black clouds closing in on us, 'Action Stations'! Batten down the hatches!! Furl the head sail!! John and Julie were in the cockpit they just had time to drop the enclosures when the winds really picked up, the boat healed over, then a wall of rain hit them. Squalls are intense but usually not very long lived. Within a few minutes the wind died down but the rain continued for a while. John and Julie looked like drowned rats but nothing got broken and there was no lightning so we came through unscathed.

We've had a bit more wind and rolling today and the forecast is that we'll get more of the same for the next few days. The only problem with this is that there is increased rolling and pitching of the boat making getting around down below a bit wild. One tends to get thrown around and develop a lot of bruises on hips and shoulders.

A "squall" is a short lived rain storm occuring often in the trades. They are preceded by strong winds and produce heavy rain and sometimes lightning.

Trip so far 890.8 nm (nautical miles)

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel