Day 17 to the Marquesas
06 April 2012 | Outbound Cabo, Inbound Marquesas, French Polynesia
Day 17 = 121 nautical miles. About 1,000 miles left to go. Yesterday I mentioned rain. Today we found out what a real ITCZ squall is. Luckily the sun was out and we saw IT coming, like a freight train straight at us. We had a single reefed main and our big genoa out, we quickly rolled it in to triple reefed. This thing coming is like a big dark blob with a curtain of darkness connecting it to the water off in the distance. As it approached, very quickly, I got this feeling that this might be a memorable experience. I got my camera ready (which is what I do when I get that feeling). The sun disappeared and the water color turned from blue to gray. The surface of the water became rippled at first and then stirred up and angry looking and waves developed in all directions. Don puts the side panels up on the cockpit enclosure to keep the rain out as much as possible. He disengaged the hydrovane steering unit and moved behind the wheel to take control of the ship. I'm throwing pillows, books, hats, etc. to the front of the cockpit, clearing the decks so to speak. The first thing that happened as the squall approached is the sails start to flutter and the wind dies off a bit and then bang, the wind meter shows 4 knots to 20 knots to 25 knots in about 5 seconds. At the peak of the event we saw 30 knots. I went downstairs and turned on the radar and I can't believe what I'm looking at. We've been completely devoured by this thing, this squall is five miles wide and all around us. I took a picture of the radar screen and I'll try to post it later. Impressive. Don's behind the wheel as Buena Vista's speed through the water increases from 4 knots to 8 to 9 knots in no time at all and holds at that speed. Water is everywhere, calling it rain is an understatement for sure. There's so much wind and water coming down you can't see anything but gray streaks. It's leaking into the cockpit here there and everywhere but there's not much we can do except hold on for the ride. The ride continued for about an hour, the squall finally passing over us and continuing on it's way. We were both happy it was over but when I looked at the radar screen I had to gasp. There were four or five more blobs lined up behind the first big one waiting their turn to take a whack at us. Yesterday when I mentioned the clouds looked like armies marching to war, it was like that. It's called a squall line. Well - we weren't going to just sit there and take it. We started the motor and got the hell out of there. The sun went down and we dropped the main and motored the rest of the night keeping an eye on the radar and enduring passing rain showers from time to time. No more squalls like that since then. When the sun came up it was another gorgeous day. There are more armies all around us off in the distance setting up for the next attack. What a place this is! It occurs to me that if someone could throw a few mooring balls out here they could rent sailboats to those adventurous souls who love to do wild and daring things..."Go Sail the ITCZ...You'll love the feeling". The ITCX is also called the doldrums. Crazy squalls mixed with light winds and large areas of no wind. Our new plan of attack is sail when there's wind, take cover when it's squally, and motor when there's no wind. Next 'stop' - the equator, in a few days.