Squalls

I could see the first squall coming.  It was a characteristic tall black cloud with rain below it.  They’re tall because of the vertical air movement within them, but we can do science later.  Our weather router has advised us to aim west of these squalls because they are moving NE and will cross in front of us.  This one seemed to have a trail of followers so I tried to race it.  And lost. The rain on the water created a misty layer and gave the water a grey quality.  On my skin it felt like hail.  I had too much sail out so tried to run (go downwind) with the storm in which direction the apparent wind, the wind that I feel, is less.  Once things were under control I was able to think of the weatherman’s advice and steered my way out of it. For some reason behind the storm the water was a vivid blue. And my bed was soaked.

The second squall was at night.  My radar picked it up 4 miles away as a red blob ahead.  It looked like it was going to pass.  Trouble was more red blobs kept materializing.  Pretty soon I was boxed in.  I had  already put in my third reef which reduced the size of my mainsail as small as it could go.  The sail was flat and the traveler was down.  Unfortunately I still had the genoa up.  The Solent, my midsized head sail, had been up earlier but the halyard was chafing at the top (something which I knew to check on because it has happened before).  I had not put up the stay sail (next smaller sail) because I was still feeling weak and dehydrated from diarrhea that had kept me up the night before.  So I furled the genoa several more turns.  I don’t like to reef by furling because it distorts the sail and reduces performance, but at this point i just need to reduce sail are quickly.  I did not go as far as I should have.  As the winds started to pick up I sat below, looking out the companionway.  The winds peaked at 44kts.  And remember that wind strength increases by the square of its velocity, so 44 kts is four times stronger than 22kts.  And a kt is 1.1mph.  If i could have spared a hand I would have videoed waves on the low side washing into the cockpit.  The boat is creaking and moaning.  I’m all geared up but I’m not going out there.  First of all I’m not sure I’d be able to bring in more sail without breaking something.  Second, if I try to steer the boat downwind I could lose control of things and make things worse.  And it simply looks scary out there.  But at a break in the wind, meaning a dip below 30kts, I went out, clipped in (secured to the boat via a tether) did what i could and hurried back to shelter.

With the sail reduced I just sat below with Tolkien. From where I read I could peak at a monitor with wind speed, the boat’s relative position to the wind and the boat’s compass heading.  Periodically she’d land off a wave with a bang and a shudder would go through the hull.  Until i disconnected it the propane alarm kept goin off, telling me my sensor has been flooded.  And of course the radar would set off alarms about the next one coming.