Sister's
Journal
|
| Date: |
13.February.2000 |
| Location: |
Rodney Bay, St. Lucia |
| Position: |
14 degrees 05 minutes North,
60 degrees 57 minutes West |
Crossing the Atlantic (cont) The Weather |
| Generally speaking, the weather it was mild. The first 4-5 days the wind blew from
the North. We made great progress moving south and a little west
along the African coast. For the next 14 days the wind blew infrequently
and each time it blew it came from a different point of the compass. Each
evening we got weather reports from various sources. We knew what
the weather was like all over our section of the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the same as it was in our little section. Occasionally
the forecast would call for an Easterly breeze in some tiny region
and boats near that region, including us a couple of times, would
motor toward it. The forecast almost never panned out. Finally,
about three days from St. Lucia the "trades" kicked
in and sailing was great for the last bit of the trip. |
| Due to the lack of wind all the boats took
longer that anticipated to make the crossing. Many boats ran out
fuel, food, water and, perhaps worst of all, beer. As many as
5-6 days from St. Lucia we heard boats begging for fuel. Several
boats had to be towed into the marina at St. Lucia because they
had no fuel. Sister has significant fuel capacity and, as the
gauge neared the quarter tank mark we got pretty miserly in terms
of fuel consumption. I wanted to arrive in St. Lucia with something
near an eighth tank of fuel left and we did. |
| The most interesting aspect of the weather
was the squalls which we began to encounter about half way across.
Everyone knows what squalls are but not everyone has experienced
them. If you pay attention you can see them coming some 15 minutes
or so before they arrive. During the day they are obvious, more
or less individual dark clouds, at night they show up clearly
on radar. They always mean a change in the wind, they often mean
lots (lots!) of rain. They typically last 10 minutes or so. |
| To prepare for an oncoming squall one generally
takes in the sails a bit (one reefs) in anticipation of the strong
wind. Early on I tried to predict the path of a particularly nasty
looking squall and to motor out of its way. No way ... it ran
right over us. We were fortunate in that none of the squalls we
encountered were particularly strong. In fact they were kind of
fun in that the sailing was often fantastic, even if for only
a few minutes, the rain was usually refreshing and, in general
the squall helped one's "watch" pass more quickly. |
| Early one morning I was lying in bed trying
not to believe that it really was time for me to stand watch.
It was obvious that we were under squall attack. Sister was heeling
more than is comfortable and she was smokin, straining to go faster.
I came up into the cockpit to relieve Cristofer and found him
sitting astride the coaming, holding on to a winch like a saddle
horn, stereo headphones plugged into his ears and a huge smile
on his face. He was riding Sister through the squall like a cowboy
riding a spirited horse and lovin every minute of it. It was kind
of fun but I was worried about the equipment so I shortened sail
a bit, brought Sister back to her feet and sent a disappointed
Cris below to sleep. |
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