Flash Low

December 9, 2018

Day 66

Noon Position: 44 32S  37 36W
Course(t)/Speed(kts): ExN 7
Wind(t/tws): W 20 – 257
Sea(t/ft): NW 8 – 10
Sky: Total Cement, rain earlier
10ths Cloud Cover: 10
Bar(mb): 1001, rising
Cabin Temp(f): 61
Water Temp(f): 54
Relative Humidity(%): 82

Sail: Working jib, three reefs (due to much higher winds earlier). Twins poled out full by afternoon.

Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 137
Miles since departure: 8926
Avg. Miles/Day: 135

The working jib out all night full in winds of 20. I could have carried more sail after midnight, but again I opt for sleepover speed.

5 am. I step into the pilot house. Wind is 25. I think I’ll take a reef.

On deck, I see the sky is intense with cloud, multi-layered, dark to windward, and the low clouds are racing. I take a reef, then another. Wind is a solid 30 within half an hour. By 7 am, it’s 35 and 40 gusting 45.

At 1 am, the barometer had read 1006; now it’s 999.

The water is becoming streaked. Wave tops are blowing off. Seas are piling up. Unsure of themselves, they have become bullies, shoving Mo onto her beam’s end as if for the sheer fun of it. Monte works hard to stay the course.

By 9 am, winds are back down to the high 20s, touching 30.

By 10am, 20 – 25.

None of this is in the forecast.

Likely there is a meteorological term for such an event. For lack of a better one, I called it a Flash Low in the log.

Flat gray sky and middle 20s wind the rest of the day. A dreary aspect to everything, except the Prions that dance around Mo like children who don’t realize they are playing in the rain.

In the afternoon I lofted the twins and felt relief at the beauty of finally flying more than one sail. We’ve been riding nothing but the working genoa for days.

—

Now I’m following the wind for a course slightly north of east in an attempt to stay out of the wind hole developing below us overnight. Tomorrow, we’ll see. I may reverse my tactic of staying up here and run down some latitude instead. The coming Rio Low is looking more intense today, and I’d rather not be in the heart of it.