Commodore
October 29, 2023

Monday 30 October – successfully through the stormy squall line

I was on the early morning shift at daybreak and was amazed to see how bright the full moon was as the sun was rising. Sadly too much cloud to see it in all its glory. We had a good overnight sail with Baby Spice up and everyone had a pretty good sleep. We had a particularly late breakfast as we managed to get hold of both girls. Han safely back in Botswana and Phoebs in London.There is such a small window of opportunity for calling with the big time differences. It was great to catch up on the latest news.

Full moon going behind the cloud just as the sun was rising

After breakfast we prepared to go through the stormy squall line. We got Baby Spice down and put the main sail back up with 2 reefs in, making it a lot smaller. We were still managing a good 10-8 knots of speed. We turned West to cross the squall line which is the meeting of the two weather systems which has the potential to produce thundery squalls. The wind picked up in areas and the one squall we got close to, produced winds of 36 knots, PolePole handled it very smoothly. A couple of hours and we were through the other side into calm waters. The weather routers soon had us heading south again. Rowan found one of the lines (ropes) holding up Baby Spice had nearly chaffed through, the salty sea dog was soon out with his whipping line and needle and had it all back to good!

Keeping between the red weather systems, with the swirl of cyclone Lola getting less intense

We kept between the two weather systems all afternoon and the wind got weaker. Our weather routers have told us to either heave to, for a day or go very slowly, as there are 4m waves created by the cyclone that we need to avoid. We furled the jib and just have a tiny bit of sail out, we have successfully dropped our speed to around 4 knots. The sun came out and with comfy seas, we decided to have a BBQ for supper to celebrate. Lamb chops and slow cooked beans to warm us up. The water temp has dropped another degree to 21 and it is definitely getting cooler. It’s 12 degrees in Auckland at the moment! So glad I packed some jeans.