I am not about to complain about the weather
but......
I do feel that the Atlantic weather has not read the
relevant manual and if it has then it is being willfully non
compliant.
We started this voyage with very little wind and a lot
of motoring. This was because the high pressure system which should have been
centred over the Azores had taken a leave of absence and gone to the UK. (Not
sure why anyone would go to the UK in December.) No problem because once the
high was back over The Azores (it is called the Azores high for a reason) then
surely we would be back to business as usual with 11-16 knot winds blowing
the entire ARC fleet to St Lucia. Clearly the weather was embarrassed by the
initial lack of wind so has now made up for it with consistently strong trade
winds. Land lubbers can be forgiven for thinking that if wind is good more
wind must be better. Whilst this is true to a degree once the wind is
consistently above 20 knots then the sea joins the party with ever larger swell
and waves. A confused sea slows our progress. The swell has been breaking on our
starboard quarter and the waves push us from the port quarter. Or is it the
other way around? After 2500 miles at sea I still can't differentiate swell from
waves. Suffice it to say they continue to battle for supremacy which results in
a very uncomfortable ride for us.
So what should have been a balmy force 4 (11-16 knots of
wind) has been a bit of a roller coaster although I have to admit that we are
now making up for earlier lost time. It is a gloriously sunny day and we are
enjoying the drop in wind force and the calmer seas. Squalls continue to pop up
around us but have not caused us any problems today. The forecast for squalls is
that they will be small and unlikely to develop into anything of concern. So
where on earth did the 44 knots of wind come from last night? The radar didn't
show any squall near us yet suddenly the wind veered and increased to over 44
knots for at least an hour. Maalu IV was careering along at 10 knots with
very little sail to assist her. Unfortunately, although the speed was exciting,
the change in wind direction was taking us to New York!
The confused seas have resulted in some large waves
breaking against us. I am not sure how the smallest room in the boat received
the equivalent of a bath tub full of saltwater through the open window. The
guilty person who left the window open has not owned up yet, It was a
pretty awesome flooding of the heads (toilet in a boat) which needed a pump to
dry out. Finally there has been a upside to the weather; the large mats of
Sargasso seaweed, which can be a hazard to yachts, have been broken up by
the constant breaking of waves. We are sailing through the remnants which
will not have any impact on our progress.
I am no meteorologist but it does seem to me that the
weather is breaking a lot of rules at the moment. It will be fascinating to talk
to more seasoned sailors when we get to St Lucia as they will be able to give us
some perspective. I hesitate to say that what we have experienced is due
to climate change but........... you may have heard it here
first!
m_Sunset