August 20

Day 5. Say, did you sleep well last night? "Yes, thank you. And you?" Not well at all. "Why?" Well, you see there was this big wall of clouds with lightning throughout. I thought I might go around it, so made a turn to the west. Straight west. The wall was just too big, so eventually, after hours of jinking around, we decided to just go back on course and take our punishment. So we did, and we made it through by daybreak.

Seen this movie before, have you? It's called ITCZ, and it is very familiar to equatorial sailors. Being as how this is our sixth equatorial crossing, we are now, pretty much, the main characters of the show. Did I say ITCZ?

That was our night. It was a busy one and we have been busy sleeping it off today. Today was surprisingly mellow and nice. All day long it looked as though we were heading into some rough country, but it always changed before we arrived. We expect tomorrow to be different though. The forecast is for us to get many squalls, heavy at times. We can already see tomorrow's programme on the horizon. Big, towering meanacing looking ITCZ looking clouds with walls of water under them (torrential rain). We are ready. It will be fine, and after tomorrow, things should get nicer.

I got to do some boat maintenance today. Our bilge pump has been running much more frequently than I like, so I went on a search. We had thought that we were just taking water through the anchor chain hawshole, but I began to suspect something else. Our steering post has a packing gland that has always wept. None of the boatyard guys, including the revered KKMI have ever been successful at making it trouble free. So it was, indeed, the packing gland. The fix is to climb into what we call the "Hell Hole" under the cockpit armed with two pipe wrenches, loosen the locknut and adjust down the fitting that contains the packing. Simple enough, but it is quite hot right now, the boat is dancing on the lumpy seas, and we have squalls around. Did I ever tell you about ITCZ?

Seriously, all is fine, we are happy and life is good. It is just fun to laugh about the little trials and tribulations we face. There really is nothing too weird or scarey here, just a bit inconvenient whilst we cross the I, uh, T, oh yes, the convergence zone.

Be Excellent to One Another, Rod and Elisabeth, "Your Rock and Roll Argonauts" "Les Pirates d'Honneur"