Hurricane scare
06 June 2011 | 16N; 120W
Peter
My biggest fear -- the possibility of a hurricane -- was realized last night when my 'weather watcher', Will, reported there was "cyclonic activity 450 nm S of Acapulco with a 90% chance of becoming a hurricane and traveling in a NWerly direction"'!! Oh, just wonderful!! We are about 1,100 nm (nautical miles) NW of the center of it. I have no experience with these things and am runnin' scared. How big do they get? How fast do they travel? Right now I am hanging on for more word from Will as to whether we need to batten our hatches and start getting ready for a gale. Also, Nirvana -- a Portland-based Tayana 35 we transited the Canal with is headed home as well and they may be quite close to it right now. So we are also worried for them.
On the brighter side, we have reached 'the promised land' -- that being 120 West. When looking at weather forecasts prior to departure, 120W seemed to be where the trade winds kicked in. We haven't seen the real trades yet, but things are definitely improving. We are running our spinnaker during the day and the breeze is becoming much more consistent both in direction as well as strength. We have had daily runs the past two days of 129 and 128 nm. Right now the seas are still on our beam. But as they kick around to our stern, I am expecting we will be able to build on those numbers.
Even so, we still aren't halfway across! We just snuck under 2,000 nm to go to Hilo, and we started with 3,365 nm. Jim and I have a beer bet for when we arrive. I say Tues., June 21 at 1300. He has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow to announce his entry!! (I think/hope we may actually arrive sooner -- on Monday -- but don't tell him!!)
Things continue to get cooler. The water temperature is now down to 77.7 deg. -- from a high of 92 we saw in the Gulf of Tuhuantepec. We are having to wear fleece and jackets at night. It's been a long time for that for me!!
The birds get a little meddlesome. At dusk they want to roost either on our masthead or our bow pulpit. We are done giving rides to hitchhikers, so we scare them off. You should see the antics with me on the deck holding a boat hook trying to scare off the birds. Quite the sight!!