White bird on a winter's day in the rain.

ARC Leg1 081207 1200
Positions
174 15.10N 48.49W 00:00
When the clouds broke this morning, a small, white seabird made a direct flight for our decks. She circled once and aborted the attempted landing upon the slippery stainless steel rail. She circled again and made for the solar panels behind the wheel. Good enough. She plunked her scrawny frame down and eyed Louis and me. We were big and looked like predators and we were only a few feet away. Who cares? She was tired, and she seemed to know we were too.
All of us had spent the past 15 hours doing battle with the elements. The rain started around dinner time. Barry, who is amazing, had prepared curried beef, curried vegetables, and rice. Louis was watching yet another dark cloud behind us. Most of these potentially threatening clouds had missed us until now. I asked him if he'd rather eat up top and he said yes. The table had been moved indoors, "just in case we got some rain". I brought a plate to the skipper, and the rest of us sat down to eat inside. The mainsail was full and it was too late to discuss dropping it or even putting a reef in it. The winds were already around 20 knots.


The black cloud did not miss us, and it brought with it winds of 40 knots and a swimming poolful of rain. Louis loved the curry. He tried to eat it while steering the boat. The sails would break, or even the mast, if too much wind caught them on the wrong side. He put the plate down on the deck and concentrated on the wind, the sails, the waves, and that plate of curry which was now hydroplaning away and back to him. Tom went up to check on his son and rescued the food. Then Mark went up to help, but there wasn't much that could be done. Just steer the boat and concentrate.
After the winds died down again, Louis came in and professed his love of the curry to the chef. Through the night the rain and wind stayed with us. For its own entertainment, the wind would shift from westerly to southerly to northerly and even occasionally head on. In the early morning hours, thunder and lightning joined the party. On several nights, I've seen lightning behind us, or to one side or the other. Last night, the lightning was simultaneously in front, behind, to our south, and directly above us. The sky came right down and planted a messy kiss on the sea, right when we were attempting to cross from upper to lower lip.


By the time the sun rose, we were all wet and tired. No one had slept at all. After lying in my bunk and staring at the car wash-like conditions pummeling the escape hatch above me, I went up top again. Louis was at the wheel once more, and the two of us watched the same storm cloud pass over us and dump torrents of rain no fewer than four times. It crossed from stern to bow, then the wind reversed itself and it crossed from bow to stern. Then it repeated that gimmick. Our storm jackets had long-since forfeited their duties. It was as if we were wearing sponge coats.


Finally, around 10:00, the clouds parted and a bright blue sky clocked in late and pretended it had been there all along. From the direction of St. Lucia, 700 miles way, the white bird appeared. It looked like a WWI fighter plane stumbling its way back home after a long and damaging night mission. We have named her Bella. I wondered how many other boats saw the same storm. How many exhausted crews are nursing themselves back this morning. Tom is a brilliant and thoughtful man. It must be frustrating for him to try to express what are obviously complex ideas in a foreign language. His English vocabulary grows daily, and he manages very well. This morning, he said, "We are running a marathon. That was a big hill. The rest of the way ... good." We came through with no damage. We hope the same for all the other ARC boats.
and over to Tom...apparently we have a good following in Holland via the Maverick Dream website...

Voordat iedereen gaat denken dat dit reisje een groot plezier is wil nu dan de keerzijde even belichten.
Gisteren tegen 19.00 uur kwamen donkere wolken op ons af die eruitzagen van veel wind en regen.
Nu dat klopt elk uur minstens een felle regenbui en af en toe windvlagen van 40 knopen. Onze eerste wacht begon om 20.00 uur tot 22.00 uur. Barry en ik zaten klaar.
Regelmatig kwam Mark even boven om bij te sturen om de harde windvlagen te verwerken.
We varen praktisch voor de wind en dan is het erg lastig als er bij een van de windvlagen de wind uit een andere hoek komt. Louis en hij gaan dan met de autopilot de golfen en windrichtingen verwerken in een zo prettig mogelijke vaart. Wel is het voordeel van veel wind ook dat de snelheid behoorlijk toeneemt. De ochtendwacht was tot 8.00 uur redelijk rustig maar gelukkig kwam Louis op tijd boven om de wacht over te nemen.
Daarna even een licht ontbijt en weer gaan slapen omdat de afgelopen nacht zeer lawaaierig en rumoerig was waardoor van slapen niets terecht kwam.
Nu is het 10.00 uur en Louis staat nog steeds boven met veel regen.
Ik zal hem maar eens gaan bezoeken. Zeker weet ik dat hij het allemaal prachtig vindt. De hele dag loopt hij met een grote grijns op zijn gezicht.
Tot morgen.
cheers from the drying out crew on maverick dream