December 06, 2012

Car Wash

Crazy weather last night. Rain like we haven't seen since our Galapagos first pass. I managed not to freak out and Salty, Graham and I got us safely through the evening. The hardest part was how tired we were. We reefed the genoa, then the main, then took down the bimini, then tried to heave to and then...finally at 4am the sky began to clear and we got Alex up to stand watch. At one point in the night I watched Graham at the helm with the high wind and blinding rain flying sideways at him and only the sliver of his eyes uncovered in his heavy weather gear and I thought...holy crap what an adventure we are on. Graham called it the Salty Ginger car wash! oh and I remember putting my hand in my rain jacket pocket to try and warm it up and the pocket had been unzipped and was seriously full of water?

This is the first weather we have had that we had to take the bimini down for it. Shocking how much pressure and force wind can have. Funnily enough I opened the hatch for down below and asked the kids to put the computer and gps in the oven due the lightening and they were both happily moving about down below and dry. Alex was actually typing up Amelia's English as she recited it to him. It was like leaning into a different world. LOL. They had no idea just how bad it was. I am glad they weren't freaked out and the reality is that if you make sure you have the right amount of sail up Salty Ginger can manage just about anything and you can live comfortably down below.

Unfortunately though with the squalls came a shift in wind and we went North to Canada for awhile and lost some ground. The wind finally eased enough that we were able to go close hauled and head directly South, so this is what we did until this morning when the sky turned blue and the wind went to zero and our glorious doldrum day began!!! I will let Amelia tell you all about it. Check out her blog. Finally only 999 miles to go at 5:30pm today. Yippeee

6 comments:

  1. Crazy! That's cool and kinda scary that the boat is so smooth that Alex and Amelia were able to be oblivious to it all. :)
    Seeing it all as a car wash for salty is quite the silver lining-way to be positive graham! By contrast, we had a beautiful frost here this morning and all the trees were beautiful & Christmas-y on the way in to work today.

    Miss & love you all, enjoy the next 999 miles (you know you'll miss it once it's over).

    The Neis'

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  2. Crazy! That's cool and kinda scary that the boat is so smooth that Alex and Amelia were able to be oblivious to it all. :)
    Seeing it all as a car wash for salty is quite the silver lining-way to be positive graham! By contrast, we had a beautiful frost here this morning and all the trees were beautiful & Christmas-y on the way in to work today.

    Miss & love you all, enjoy the next 999 miles (you know you'll miss it once it's over).

    The Neis'

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  3. Crazy, but sounds like fun too. What a great boat!

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  4. Following you guys daily. Vivid writing as always JP.
    Chris

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  5. Hi Guys, sounds like your back to having an awesome adventure without the breakdowns. We are currently in the Bay Of Bengal, Penang, Malaysia at a marina, not our normal style but the cost has been between 2 and $20/night Cdn. We have motored since Borneo (around 1200 miles) with the exception of a few half hour sails, fortunately fuel is also cheaper here.
     Our most recent inconvenience was turning around at the bottom of Pinang Island in daylight because there were so many fishermen with 100 m long nets set just under the surface of the water with 1 small buoy at each end. You just can't tell which way is safe. We ended up motoring an extra 30 miles around to the top of the island to another great and affordable marina.
     This area has been the hottest of our trip so far, imagine Panama but with no wind. It is also the rainy season here, rain, lightning and squalls daily, this will hopefully be gone once we get to Thailand where we plan to haul out and redo the bottom, (1st time since Loretto Ontario), as well as whole bunch of other stuff on the list. Hopefully the electronics don't get fried by lightning before we get there.The plan is Thailand for Christmas.
    We hooked up with SV Pickles again, their plan is to spend a year around here and then back to the US via N Pacific.
    Our plan is South Africa next Christmas. I was going to finish but I have to tell this last bit. We have been traveling with a South African boat that started 4 years ago with a 4 year old boy, they now have 2 boys and going to Thailand to give birth to there 3rd child. I can,t imagine crossing oceans with a boat load of babies. And just to fill there extra time they have maintained their businesses from the boat while cruising.

    Mike from Gromit

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    1. oh Mike..we miss you guys so much. I checked out your pics, so cool. We are so jello that you get to go to South AFrica. We have to talk. Maybe there is an opportunity for GP and I to join you guys. Unbelievable that you haven't hauled the boat since you left. Shocking. Stay safe and enjoy the adventure. The Salty Gingers!!

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