We're in the ITCZ!
17 March 2016 | 02 43.468s:037 28.175w
Bill/clouds and lots of rain
For the last two days,we've been fighting with the winds, rain and swells in the ITCZ. Every morning for the last few days, it's rained and blown with winds in the 25-30 knot range. These squall start about 0300 and last a few hours with much stronger wind and lots of rain. Today's has lasted all day(it's almost 1400)raining on and off with steady winds of about 20 knots. We got caught this morning with to much sail up and had room really work at getting our poor genoa sail rolled in. We also had a freighter coming right up from behind us. I'd radiod him and asked him to alter course a bit to starboard as he was set to pass us quite close and with the wind and the rain petting us, we didn't want to worry about him. He passed us about2 miles off our starboard side. We were also joined by Tom and Barbara on Gosi, fellow cruisers we've known for quite some time. They were in Brazil for the last few weeks and are now heading for French Guyana and then on to Trinidad t o the same marina we will be in. Many boats go there for repairs. We have quite a list, the most important is to have our teak decks removed and have them fiberglassed to stop all the leaks we have. We have reservations from the middle of June through to December. It's supposed to be a good place to avoid hurricanes. Hopefully we won't find out. The skies are totally overcast and more rain looks like it's coming. We have the sides up on the cockpit so we can stay sort of dry. The engine is running since we can't run our generator. Tracy is below getting some more sack time. With the weather the way it is, it takes just about total concentration when at the wheel. Winds shift out here with darn little notice. We were joined by a bunch of dolphins yesterday afternoon. There were dozens of them but they stayed in clusters of five or six. Played around our bow for over an hour. Had lighter spots on their skin and a white tip on their beak. No clue what type they were. Came toward us jumping up in the air. Quite a sight. --------------090508090505000807030508--