heatwaves rolling over you even in the shade of ones cabin with the fan
on full blast. Hand in hand with that always comes rain later on,
immense heat causing a lot of condensation formning clouds that will get
to heavy to hold the their load and spoil it at some time as the
temperature cools down again. One does not have to be a prophet to
predict these things, just observant. And as expected, at about 8pm last
night the rain came down in buckets as a bank of dark clouds moved over
us. The cooling effect of the rain is always exhilirating on these
sweltering hot days. This morning at sunrise the sky was covered with
low grey coulds all around, but an hour or two later they have been
evaporated again by the sun and now we have scattered clouds everywhere,
which I am sure will gang up again tonight and rain on us. I expected to
see cumulus nimbus clouds, the huge towering clouds which flattens out
at the top in an anvil shape as it meets the cool stratosphere. Thunder
and lightning and heavy rains can always be expected when they are
present, but so far none of those. The squalls we had last night was
very gentle, only generating winds of up to 10kts. The cumulus nimbus
clouds normally whacks you with winds at 30kts+.
In severe cases you also get hail the size of gholfballs trying to take
you out, ask me, I've been there. In that case we were trapped between
two warring factions with the wind exploding on us at 60 kts with our
sails still up. Too late to turn around in case we break the mast or
flip the boat I had to run with the wind howling in my ears, both motors
at full throttle to take some pressure of the sails. The storm was
relentless and I was at the edge of my physical and mental abilities to
control the boat. The language I used at that stage is not fit for
publishing on any sailing blog.... It was in the middle of the night
with zero visibility and I did not even had time to think that things
couldn't get worse when it got worse. Just wearing shorts I got pelted
with these gholfball sized hailstones. First one on my foot, then my
head and the noise was deafening as nature unleashed her full fury on
me. I normally prefer to go with the flow and roll with the punches
under these severe storm conditions, but at times you have to stand up
and fight with everything you have in you. Amidst these tempestuous
conditions my daughter's face appeared to me, smiling, and that gave me
the supernatural strength that was required to get us through.
Back to the sunny Pacific where we have absolutely no wind around us,
Fatu Hiva under 100nm ahead of us, and the prospect of seeing land again
for the first time in nearly a month. There are no shops there and we
are purely stopping for goodness sake. I wonder if you have any idea
what is like to not see land for so long, how it feels to set foot on
land again, to smell the earth, the trees, to see the colours of the
tropical paradise plants after only really seeing blue in all her
different moods. All I can say and I am only speaking for myself, is
that it makes a deeper than deep impression on you, leaves you in awe,
makes you aware of the sacredness that I sometimes forget and sometimes
just take for granted. I hope my crew will also have a meaningfull
experience, that they will be touched, be moved and be changed forever.
That is all I can hope for. Then I would consider this trip successful.
Our position at 10am our time is 10*15'S/136*46'W. We are timing our
arrival at Fatu Hiva for first light tomorrow morning, and then leave
again at about noon to get to our next destination also early morning. I
have looked at the weather etc and have decided that I may cut through
the atholls a bit, the scenery is also breathtaking, but we won't stop.
There is an element of danger going through these atholls but I have
been here before and won't take any changes. So from here on it is a few
short hops and we should be tied up in Papeete, Tahiti on Tuesday
morning just after the Easter Weekend.
Hope you are having a good time wherever you are and whatever you are
planning for the weekend ahead.
Paul
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