We’ve had a wet exciting and topsy-turvey kind of day today. The weather wreaked havoc with the watch schedule. Sometime in the early morning the weather began to deteriorate, and by 9:30 we were in the midst of a full-fledged squall. The wind shifted forward, the seas got bigger and lumpier, the wind increased and so did the rain until it was really pelting the boat. Jake and the 2 Peters were on deck when the storm began and stayed until the end-no sense dragging all that water into the boat andsending someone dry out into the storm. They called for their foul weather gear and hats and hunkered down in the cockpit to keep the boat on course with a combination of power and sail. The radar screen showed heavy rain for 8 miles all around us, further in some quadrants. Jeff used the radar to monitor the movement of the storm for a few minutes and then suggested a course change that would get us out of the storm in the shortest distance. And it worked. It wasn’t quick, however. It took about 4 hours to get through the worst of the storm. We could begin to see a couple areas of blue sky, the dark clouds ahead seemed less dense than those behind. And the rain stopped. At that point we all had lunch and the wet guys came below while the dry guys went out fully dressed in foul weather gear. Yet another example of great teamwork on avalanche! (Peter V reported the highest wind gust he saw at 35 knots.) Jeff and I took a photo of our radar screen with the storm all around. We’ll try to post it. (The range was at 8 miles, the rings are 2 miles.) (It’s just like the Doppler radar the local weatherman shows on TV.)

The rest of the afternoon has been spent with Jake and the 2 Peters going down to sleep. Jeff has now joined them, Leo and I are on watch, but I’ve been permitted to do all my watching inside out of the weather, and Jake has gotten up again to go on deck and to talk to Herb. We’re waiting for Herb to tell us what we just went through and what to expect next, then it will be a
turkey dinner. It’s supposed to be Jake’s turn to cook, but since he’s out sailing the boat again, and I’m inside, I’ll do my best to get dinner together.

Unfortunately the propagation was miserable, so we couldn’t ask Herb what we had gone through, whether it was a front or merely an extended squall or squalls. We were able to learn that we won’t have much wind between here and Bermuda. But the best news is that the clouds have thinned and we have big patches of starry sky around.

Leo and I were both commenting on how quickly the sea can change. During the storm the seas were big, yet at midnight when we were on watch together the sea was practically calm in the moonlight. I had thought of describing the sea at some point, and this is a good opportunity. If you watched George Clooney in The Perfect Storm, it might be easy to imagine the ocean as wild with huge scary waves. Since we are able to select our weather window when we are out here with input from Herb, we don’t experience anything like those conditions. We are more likely to see 5-6′ swells with 10-20 knot winds and the accompanying white caps. In a squall like today the wind driven waves are whipped up, the water blows off the tops and it’s hard to see very far in the rain-just like at home on Narragansett Bay. When we have light winds and are motoring we are apt to have small swells, and when there is no wind it can be glassy calm. That’s when we have swim call!

Also of note is that the ocean is like a desert. We see very little life. We’ve had the barracuda and 2 marlin, but haven’t seen any other fish except flying fish. We’ve seen Bermuda longtails and shearwaters, but that’s about it for birds. I’ve spotted a couple of loose fishing floats, and someone saw a piece of lumber. Otherwise we see Sargasso weed. (We have a dip net to scoop up some weed to see all the life it carries, but it hasn’t been calm enough to use it yet.)

I have to apologize for forgetting to include our latitude and longitude in each day’s blog. I’ll include the 1600 position (that’s when we talk to Herb) for today, and append the preceding 3 days as well. All the best from the crew of avalanche, looking for a dull ordinary unexciting day tomorrow, perhaps some fish!

Tuesday May 27 Latitude 26 30.65 N Longitude 63 08.99W (miles in 24 hours:
178)

Monday May 26 Latitude 23 38.100N Longitude 62 22.6W (miles in 24 hours:
180)

Sunday May 25 Latitude 20 45.669N Longitude 61 52.174W (miles in 24 hours:
185)

Saturday May 24 Latitude 17 35.800N Longitude 61 39.111W

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