The ITCZ is a wonky place. So far, we have been very fortunate. We've alternated between light winds, sporadic showers, and dead calm. No nasty convection and only two lightening sightings, both at a distance. Yesterday evening when the wind died, we went swimming (not all at once of course) and then dropped the sails. We put on every light in the house and then just sat there for five hours. Not moving, no crashing thudding swishing or banging, no wind generator whine, just gentle bobbing. Four of us slept deeply, soundly, in complete recovery mode. Jaime was absolutely spooked and took watch checking the horizon every 10 minutes convinced that we were going to get run down. All good.
When the wind decided to reappear, it came light from the NE so we put up the spinnaker and have been making reasonable time all day. It's not zoom crash boom, but I can live with this. As DrC and I say to one another, better to take an extra few days and not add the stress to ourselves and the rig. A gentle 4 to 5 knots downwind in light swell is ever so much better for everyone than zooming along at 8 knots.
A shout out to Maya (age 6) of Pennsylvania who wants to know: "How big is your boat?" Maya, our boat is 38 feet long and 21 feet wide. Her mast is 56 feet tall. She is a catamaran which means she has two hulls with a bridge deck in between. She has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen which we call the galley, and two heads (which are the potties). Our boat could basically fit in your living room and kitchen.
PPJ Note #7: YEAST. Our New Zealand yeast is not particularly happy with the heat and humidity we are currently experiencing. I strongly recommend that you buy fresh yeast in a climate similar to the conditions you anticipate. We're reviving it with brewer's yeast nutrient... which is another really useful item to pack.
PPJ Note #8: DEHYDRATED FISH. Don't let your family do this. They will then insist on keeping it, eating it, and breathing the stench all over you. It's foul. This is binary, like boarders vs. skiiers, paper vs. plastic. Either you like fish jerky or you want to kill the people who do.
~ Toast
N0 45.6 W127 26.7 205T 5kts
April 30 2000 UTC
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