Position: 31 degrees, 58 minutes north; 159 degrees, 18 minutes west 132 nm day
It’s starting earlier tonight. It’s not even dark yet and already the lightning is starting just upwind and behind us. Hopefully it’s not chasing us down, but I’m not sure yet which way it’s going. I’m plotting it on the radar as I type this.
Uh, oh...
Last night, the lightning was a fun lightshow. There was a huge CB behind us and it was very active. It lit up every 10 seconds or less for my whole watch. There were even three bolts that touched the water right behind us. At the same time, it was clear above us and meteors would shoot across the sky, dropping down below the CB behind us as if they were dropping into it, and it would then fire a bolt and the whole sky would light up. Fun to watch!
Until morning. Around 0800 two HUUUGGEE CBs came down from upwind with our name on them. Each was at least 10 miles wide and had that greasy dark grey/black look under them that distinguishes the really ugly ones from run of the mill squalls. Down toward us they came, snarling and growling, then lightning and thunder! I adjusted our course as best I could to run from it, but it seemed no use. The first one was going to devour us. Suddenly it seemed to veer or part of it lifted and missed us by a hair’s breath. I couldn’t believe it. It though we were going to get hammered.
But, the celebration was very short lived. The next one seemed a little smaller, but was growing rapidly and it started throwing lightning bolts all the way to the water, right where we were headed! The other problem was – we were almost dead in the water. The first squall had sucked all the energy out of the area where before the squall we were enjoying 15 plus knots of breeze. OK, no more fooling around – engine on and before even warming it up I pushed the throttle full forward in squall avoidance mode. More lightning! I steered 90 degrees to where I thought the direction of the lightning’s travel was, hoping to slide past it. You can’t just turn away and outrun these things, they go too fast, you can only try and get an angle that hopefully gets around one.
Well, I got around the lightning, but the rain enveloped us and we were steering by instruments for half an hour trying to find the best course to get through the beast the fastest. We finally made it out the other side, but these two squall/CBs were so big they sucked all the wind out of the area and we ended up motoring for two hours before the wind filled back in.
Here’s hoping tonight is less eventful. It’s supposed to be the peak of the meteor shower and we would much rather watch that than lightning.
Hi, I’m just catching up on the blog. My iPad page wasn’t updating so I thought you were not writing. Wrong! Sounds like some excitement you’ve had and I hope for calmer weather ahead. I have not caught any of the meteor shower yet. Have looked but I think I am too early and can’t get myself to stay up late.
Yikes! Hope that’s the last of that for you!
Wow Ann! way to steer! praying for those squalls to go another direction. Have fun with the meteor shower!
Oh boy! I’ve heard of rum runners using sailboats but never lightening runners. Since you are the tallest thing on the water how do you protect from a strike? Could one blow out all your electronic instruments?
Maybe it’s time for a rum peace offering to the weather gods. They seem to be getting a little out of hand. I’m sure Thor could find much more interesting targets to hurl his thunderbolts at. I’m sure if Ann had a little heart-to-heart with him she could charm him into changing his behavior. A little rum, a little Ann ought to do the trick.
Duck and weave on, duck and weave on sailors….
Hope there are lots of meteors and no more bolts! xxoo
This is nail-biting part of the journey. So not a fan of ligtning. Especially up close and personal. Hope that’s the last of it and the meteor shower is the most entertainment you have tonight.