Day 4, (12:00 24th June 2018), Pos 35 – 20N, 143 – 16E Daily Run 126 NM. Weather, Calm but grey.

Day 4, (12:00 24th June 2018), Pos 35 – 20N, 143 – 16E Daily Run 126 NM. Weather, Calm but grey.
Yesterday saw a tropical depression develop out of nowhere, and become a low pressure of 1004mb, with winds of up to 35 knots travelling at 35 knots towards us. First it was heading North, then East, then East North East. Trying to avoid it was pointless. We had about 24 hours notice via the weather reports, but the predicted track changed so much I think it would have been down to luck if we had missed it. So yesterday morning I spent checking everything was lashed down well, and preparing for the gale. The winds built through the afternoon, until we had 20 knots on the starboard beam, we were now racing along under a small amount of staysail (maybe 50%) and nothing else. Then the wind veered and dropped to next to nothing, and the sea calmed. I hoped for a minute that that might be it, but looking at the latest forecasts, I could see the centre of the low was very close to us and we could expect a bashing from it again shortly (now 1002mb from 1012 a few hours earlier). soon enough the wind picked up, then quickly switched to the port quarter, then onto the port beam. Now the waves picked up and we were being tossed around a fair bit. Too much to do anything really. I brought the sail in as it was constantly flapping around with the boats violent lurches from leaning right over to port, then to starboard, all the time heaving up and down. The rain was quite heavy now as well, so we battened down the hatches , as they say, fired up the engine and retired below. Kathy had already managed to serve up some wholesome pasta with a tomato sauce, before things got too bad. We have got reasonably good at stowing now, so little escaped inside. There were no ships around out here, some 50 miles offshore, so a quick glance at the AIS and radar every 30 minutes provided some assurance. I did spot a big shark during this, I wondered if he knew something I didn’t? Later in the evening when we were really getting thrown around I smelt diesel fumes. my fear was that we had a leak in one of the jerry cans strapped to the side of the deck. We have 8 in total, giving us a reserve supply of 80 litres. It was too rough and the half moon did little to light up the night, so I decided to ignore it for a bit, but the smell got worse so I donned my wet weather gear, and with the help of two safety lines, I worked my way forward to the cans which are opposite the mast on each side. Sure enough the lashings had come undone and 4 cans were lying on their side, one of them nearly empty. I guessed right away it was the one with the faulty air cap, I had fixed temporarily. At this point I found out just how slippy wellies can be on a deck covered in diesel, why had it decided not to rain during this incident! Anyway, I shouted to Kathy to get the deck lights on and power up the wash down pump, and to pass me the washing up liquid. I then re-secured the cans, squirted soap everywhere and scrubbed the decks. My sincerest apologies to all the sea life who thought the water tasted a bit off last night. It won’t happen again. By 4 AM this morning the waves had reduced enough that we both got some sleep, and now they continue to diminish. My forecast tells me we have a deficit of wind planned for a few days, I wouldn’t mind a break from the wind or waves, but feel a bit like a sitting duck here with gale force winds able to come out of nowhere and still very much in the typhoon belt. Hence we are still burning up fuel trying to get as far east as possible. It’s interesting how back home in the NW of England, we see all the weather systems arrive, mostly across the Atlantic as fully formed lows and highs, whereas here and further south is where the weather is made, and then delivered, in this case, over to the west coast of America and Canada. It was reassuring to get through that last blow without any real issues, the waves were big and the wind was in the low 30’s so things can be a lot worse, but we handled that quite well. I’m less bothered about what we might meet on passage now. The worst of it is the waves right now, they are hitting us from the port beam, the starboard beam, astern and sometimes a few big random waves will whack us, making the motion of the boat a real pain. … 2hours later… As I’m posting this, the sea has calmed greatly and we are flying the Genoa and making 5-7 knots Easterly without the engine. All is good again.
Paul Collister