0600 Position: 5* 47’ and 119 * 43 ‘
Seas have a 1 foot chop
70% cloud cover - normally this would not sound good but when you are in the open ocean a bit of cloud cover is always appreciated.
Barometric Pressure 1007 and steady.
0900 We were treated to a great dolphin show. I think they were just excited to have someone to play with.
Missed another squall by altering course to port
1125: Short squall passed overhead dropping just enough rain to rinse off the boat and me! I had my bathing suit on so no big deal.
1200 Noon Position: 5* 26’ N and 119* 58 ‘ W
Winds from the SE at 20 knots.
Speed 6.5 to 6.8 knots
Course is 210 and we are on a beam reach.
Distance Travelled in last 24 hours: 108 nm
Distance Travelled to Date: 1470 nm
Another pretty perfect day of sailing. Two salt water showers and one fresh water rinse!
Paella with Cerezo sausage, chicken and prawns for dinner.
Most of the day and evening was spent playing dodgeball with the squalls. Sometimes we won. Sometimes Mother Nature won. The Monitor (Tori) has held its own while David and I reduce sail to slow ourselves down so the squall can pass ahead of us.
David did manage to get the weather fax tonight but then he had to shut down the computer and radio to assist me with the sails.
Immediately after the squalls pass over us the winds tend to die right off - I guess the squall sucks all of the wind into itself . We often experience a small drop in wind just before we sail into a squall - is this the calm before the storm?
Within a few minutes we picked up speed and were back sailing at 6.2 knots. It has been a good thing to work through the squalls with David. I am always learning and building up my confidence as we deal with each one of them. They are all different and we are all grateful that they are relatively mild in the scheme of things.
Spoke too soon. As that night Armon got blasted with a 20+ knot squall out of the blue. A bit of adrenalin rush as he managed to get the genoa furled in to one third. I was sleeping but could just imagine the smile on his face as he sailed along at 7+ knots. As he keeps saying - this is what he came for!
And so ends another day.
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