Consistently Inconstant
24 August 2011 | 400 miles from Cape Flattery
Fiona
Today finds us beating into 20 knot headwinds. Reefed down and partially furled we are heading more east than we'd like, but with the promise of a north west switch within 24 hours, we are hoping we can then follow our rhumb line to Cape Flattery; but then again, maybe not. Every day holds new surprises as far as the weather is concerned, despite our access to detailed weather information. A new decision to make on a daily or thrice daily basis. In what direction should we, can we, head? Should we gybe? should we tack? How about another reef in the mainsail? Perhaps we should motorsail, or simply motor and furl in the jib completely. Sometimes it's hard not to be as indecisive as the weather. Or perhaps the latter is not being indecisive, it is simply laying out it's repertoire. Look, I can be benign, with reassuringly calm seas, caressing breezes and heady blue skies or I can be wild and threatening, with towering cumulonimbus or sometimes I am monochromatic, slate sea merging into slate sky, the air thick with fine wetting rain.
The weather can be as capricious and labile as an adolescent or perhaps that is simply our reaction to it. It is unpredictable, all powerful and humbling and despite the wide spectrum of attributes it has put on display, it has thus far been kind to us. We must not incur the wrath of the weather gods.
Everyone is extremely well on Phambili, the mood consistently upbeat despite our stop start progress. Lots of calculating on arrival times, great interest shown in wind strength, boat speed and direction. I now have to wrest this computer we use for sailmail out of typing hands to write this blog and check the weather, as more and more emails fly back and forth between here and the cousins and friends at home. This temperamental little computer, previously the exclusive domain of Tommy and I, has become a hot item.
Four hundred miles to Cape Flattery. The countdown to landfall has begun.