Days 14 - 16 March 25 – March 27, 2000

Even staying north of 10º put us close enough to the edge of the convection area to experience a night of rain squalls with lightning in clouds at a distance but no electrical activity nearby. Next day the weather fax showed the convection zone to have dissipated. Our experience was that they don’t last long, but they are to be avoided if possible. We are broad reaching comfortably in NE winds at 20 with a double reefed main and the genoa about half sheeted in and held out on the pole. Finally we are doing 100+ mile days and on Day 16 were halfway to our destination according to the GPS. We also changed course and started heading more south towards the Equator with the intention of crossing before 130º West.

The moon is now past full and does not rise until around midnight. With the heavy cloud cover the last couple of nights this has made it very dark on watch, and much harder to see squalls approaching. We had long discussions among the crews about how you should plan the passage to take advantage of the moon, but I now think it’s best to try to have it at the full when you are close to the equator and liable to have cloudy weather. That way the night watches are less trying. We used the radar for the first time to track the rain squalls and to try and dodge them as best as possible. It worked fairly well although it is hard to tell how large a squall area actually is from the radar. It works best to show the squall direction and speed.

There are tropic birds around now, often in pairs, plus the occasional shearwater and storm petrels. We’ve seen quite large flocks of what might be petrels, but they don’t get close enough for identification except as single individuals. Haven’t seen any albatrosses yet.

It is very hot and muggy, which makes it a pain to have the boat closed up. We keep the butterfly hatch and galley port open as much as possible.

We’ve now finished all the bread (but not the tortillas), all the bananas and avocados and all but the last half of a tomato. There are just a few radishes remaining and some limes for making drinks – should have bought more of those. We still have jicama, chayote, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets and onions.

At 0700 we have a cup of tea each and Paula usually has cereal (with added nuts) around 0930. We each make lunch when we like and then Vlad cooks the main meal sometime between 1700 and 1830. We’ve mostly been eating one-pot meals. Last night was rice and pork, the night before chicken with penne. We’ve also had chicken and rice or chicken and potatoes. One night when Vlad felt unenthusiastic about cooking we had an omelet on a tortilla each. Otherwise we snack when we feel like it, occasionally a sandwich in the middle of the night, usually a chocolate bar, or cheese snacks, or trail mix. We have not been eating huge meals and have both lost weight, which is good.