Well it was an interesting night.
I couldn’t fall asleep so I watched part of “Pirates of the
I probably fell asleep around midnight. Between midnight and 15:00 I had to tend to the radar’s perimeter alarm at least on 5 different occasions as rain was in the area. As soon as I would fall asleep the alarm would sound, it was like a “don’t sleep” alarm. Every time I got up to look at the radar I would either decrease the perimeter or try to tune out the rain so I could get some sleep. At 16:30 I was up and in panic mode. Over the years of waking up in panic mode I’ve trained myself with a .30 second delay, “okay…, think, don’t act!” I was sure a cyclone was on top of me. The rain was torrential and I’m sure the wind over 25kts, I had full canvas flying.
“Cyclones don’t come this far east, It’s just a squall. You’ve dealt with hundreds of squalls, just roll in the jib and reef the main. This is a good thing. Squalls are a healthy part of the trade wind system, you will have wind tomorrow.” I went outside to tend to Namaste.
As soon as I released the jib I slipped back and the sheets from both sides flew from their blocs and were violently lashing at the squall. I could almost hear Namaste screaming “Back, Back” like a lion tamer. I quickly reeled in the reefing line disarming Namaste of her weapons.
All in all getting the jib in only took my .45 seconds. Within another minute I had 3 reefs in the main and the wind was fading.
As I sat on deck in the torrential downpour I realized I was shaking from cold. “It’s 80 degrees, how can I be so cold” I thought? Am I really this used to the warm weather?
I came inside to dry off, make coffee, and check the radar for more squalls.
I think my radar is screwed. It seems to only register a few degrees of a 360 degree sweep, and erase the information with the next sweep. I really depend on my radar for its perimeter alarm. I don’t know that I will attempt to explore the Tuamotoes with out it. The atolls are low and only visible from as little as 9 miles away; I could easily put Namaste on a reef at night as the charts can be drastically off for the area. Perhaps I can fix it? I will need to check it out at anchor as I will need to disassemble the dome.
Another night in the log books.
Anyway I’m hoping for wind today, only 841 miles to go.
Pease, love, and squalls.
Alex
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