Passage Panama to French Polynesia, day 18, Thursday 6-Apr:
We had taken the spinnaker down at sunset yesterday and until 2am today regretted doing so. We’d spent the evening slopping around in 10-11kts with sails and rig horribly flogging and the boat barely making 5-6kts. So in the wonderful full moon at 2am, I put the spinnaker back up again. Instantly the boat is silent, stable, and now ghosting along at a not-so-shabby 7-8kts with AWA120. I’m really getting comfortable with this Parasailor spinnaker now, which we purchased specially for the Pacific’s lighter winds.
Again, it was yet another lovely sunrise. Each day now we get sun and moon rise directly astern and sunset and moon set directly on our bow, as we travel directly west.
The rest of the day the “champagne sailing” continued.
Well now, how things can change. We knew a squally disturbance was approaching us from behind, but every forecast model showed it rolling to the north of us around mid-evening. Not so. There we were trogging along under blue skies minding our own business, on a perfect spinnaker close reach, when a distinct squall line (line of dark clouds) comes up from behind and can be seen on radar. We then just about got the spinnaker dropped and down the hatch before being hit by 25-30kt winds. Focusing on the spinnaker we didn’t have time to reef main, so we hung on charging downwind with full mainsail. Then rain, then suddenly no wind at all. Leaving us bobbing about with sails and rig clattering and banging as the boat rolls in the newly confused waves.
And that’s how the night continued as one squall cloud after another came our way. The wind was anything from 5-30kts and from all directions. At one point we were even sailing close-hauled yet still on our westward course. This due to the next (big) squall coming from behind us sucking in air from every direction around it. Hence reversing the wind in front of its path.
But every cloud has a silver lining, right? At long last we get some much-appreciated rain, to rinse the salt off everything and rid us of the Panama City’s black pollution. During the first shower the water draining through the deck scuppers was filthy. Second shower not so bad, and by the third shower it was clean water. Lovely. It will be so nice to go on deck and not get salt from everything and anything we touch.
