Wind Puffs of 50 Buttons

ARC Leg1 071207 1200
Positions
174 15.53N 45.57W 00:00

The sea was flat and the sun was throwing off its first hints about how intense it intended to be in the Caribbean. The boat was quiet late afternoon yesterday as I lounged on the seat at the wheel. Suddenly, Cap'n Mark popped up from the lower deck and jerked me loose from my internal revelry. He was looking behind us, "Yep, there it is. A severe storm warning was just issued, and we're right on the front edge of it." I sat up just as the winds increased and watched the wind gauge cruise from 10 knots to 16-18. All at once the whole crew was on alert and in action, stowing water jugs and cushions, organizing storm gear, reeling in fishing lines, and battening the hatches.

The skies over us were robin's egg blue, but the dark ones that had suddenly appeared behind and to our south had all our attention. The sea began to roll and as the wind increased to 25-28 knots, the tops of the waves were clipped off and blowing ahead. The main sail was already down, and now Louis was rigging a rope around the boom and cinching up the fabric. The genoa sail, which opens as if it were the last paper towel on a roll that is positioned vertically, was rolled-up slightly in order to take some of the stress off of the usual pressure points. As we maintained a vigil up top to see what the fates would bring us, a whale was spotted well off the starboard side deck. It seemed as though the creature was rather enjoying the change in circumstances, as it rose up out of the sea and flopped back down onto the frothing white caps. Time and again it performed these acrobatics as we played the part of enthralled audience. The black clouds were obviously dropping a lot of rain into the sea behind us. It would be a crap shoot as to whether they would roll over us or push off toward the northwest before reaching our little pin point on the chart. Over the next few minutes, we all watched as the weather dice were thrown. They came up sevens. The rain passed just behind us before advancing, but we reaped the benefits in strong winds and surf. The storm gear was shelved, within easy reach, and Barry carried on with his dinner plans consisting of egg noodle pasta, tomato sauce, and grated cheese. With the winds howling onto the aft deck dining table, we ate quickly, lest the pasta be transformed into a cold rubber ball.
Mark said to us, "You've now experienced Force 7 winds." Had we? Dear me. What will my neighbors and Barry's breakfast club members at the Brecon Leisure Center say? Not to mention Tom's friends at the piano workshop. Ah well ... let them all talk. After the dark clouds, we continued with winds tickling 30 knots and waves around three or four meters high until the wee early morning hours.






By sunrise things had calmed considerably, affording us the chance to make repairs to the system that heats water on the boat. Since this involved the engine in the generator, it gave us license to try out our mechanic's mouths. The problem centered around the !!#$@&* pump. The #@!! impeller had busted and a piece of it was stuck in the @!&%#$% intake system. To make matters worse, we had the replacement part, but the °Ë@$7!!s no longer include the required gasket so we couldn't close it all back up. Normally, one of us would just run down to the parts store and spend the buck-twenty on a new gasket, but Pep Boys has yet to open a store near our current location. After #@&^%! - about and trying to piece together some kind on compromise, Louis remembered that he had purchased a tube of gasket sealant back in Tenerife. Out-#@^&&%#-standing! The instructions on the tube were in Portuguese, but we got by ok and the generator is currently humming like a ~^%$#@*&!.

Our projections are now for an arrival in St. Lucia on Wednesday afternoon. If we can maintain an average speed of 6.5 knots, we'll be there in time to dine out. Note to my Ellen: I'll attempt to call your mobile phone this evening to see if you had any luck finding me a plane ticket home. I miss you.
We're all having a good time on the high seas, or a high time on the good seas. As we get closer to St. Lucia, we are seeing a few more boats. We came within 10 miles of the boat Lilly, but could not see her. We know they were to our south only because Mark spoke with the American captain on the VHF. Mark told him that we had an American on board too, and perhaps our American will talk American with them in St. Lucia. "Marvelous," I thought, "maybe we can all go out for Chinese." We continue to roll along on a heading of 2601Ž4 or so. The waves are directly behind us and raising us up about 3 meters before we gently skid downward into the next trough. I am not positive, but it looks like tonight will feature a new moon. The past few nights, the stars have been phenomenal, with shooting stars mixed in. With the prospect of a very dark night and billions of stars, I'm looking forward to tonight's graveyard shift for the watch.


And some more Dutch for you fellow Netherlanders...

De verwachting is dat we woensdag in de late middag aankomen wanneer we genoeg wind in de zeilen houden.
De ontvangstceremonie op St. Lucia heeft iets met Rum te maken dus we moeten niet te vroeg aankomen.
Gisteren werd er een waarschuwing in het noordelijke gedeelte afgegeven van windvlagen van 50 knopen.
Voor alle zekerheid maar alles in gereedheid gebracht om snel te kunnen reven en alles goed vast te zetten.
De zeilpakken, de reddinglijnen en zwemvesten klaargelegd en maar afwachten. Er kwamen wel donkere wolken aan en de wind wakkerde goed aan maar boven de 30 knopen is het nauwelijks gekomen.
Wel was er weer even reuring op de boot.
De golfen waren inmiddels redelijk ruig en toen zagen we op zo'n 800 meter naast ons een grote staartvin uit het water komen en er weer induiken dat gebeurde een aantal keren. 4 vn ons waren ervan overtuigd dat het een walvis was. Louis was een iets andere mening toegedaan. Hij dacht aan een grote vis die acrobatiek liet zien.
Maar hier konden onze ervaringen met het zien van natuurfilms op National Geografic ons niet van de wijs brengen.
Vanmorgen is er een kleine reparatie uitgevoerd aan de generator.
Er miste een klein onderdeeltje maar vijf heel nuchtere kerels hebben het geklaard zodat alles weer naar tevredenheid werkt.
Zo direct gaan Barry en ik pannenkoeken bakken waar we allemaal veel trek in hebben.
Groetjes
en de rug van Louis is weer helemaal bruin.

Cheers from the surfing crew onboard Maverick Dream