avionbianca   Blog for s/v Avion

Day 13 Post By Jon

Dodging Squalls

Day 13 8:00 A.M. (358 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)

167 NM Made Good to Hawaii over the past 24 Hours.

Day 13 10:35 P.M. (334 NM from Hawaii)

GPS is indicating 48 hours to destination.

In the middle of a blissful sleep Juan was rudely awaken by the strangest sensation of being clobbered over the head. Was this another result of escaping the bad guys in his dream after watching another marathon session of Breaking Bad like last time when he fell out of the bunk on Antigua scrambling away from someone trying to shoot him! No, that couldn’t be, he realized as his awareness became more focused, he hadn’t watched TV in nearly two weeks. He looked around for the cause of his sudden shock into reality and found 3 one gallon water jugs lying next to his head while his body was bunched in a ball on the leeward side of the bunk. It appeared that the 3 bottles dislodged from their compartment on the windward side of the bunk. He looked forward to see John standing at what appeared to be a 45 degree list to Starboard while wrestling with his life jacket looking back at Juan with a big grin on his face. Juan took his ear plugs out and over the noise of the engine charging the batteries he could hear flogging sails. He reached over grabbed his pants and literally slide into them. He them slip on sandals and his lifejacket and joined John at companion way. Looking out he saw Nico’s smiling face telling John to help douse the big spinnaker and to Juan to go squirrel. As Juan hustled to the peak of boat to await the dropping of the sail he thought with a smile on his face, how cool is this, as he worked his way through the cabin making sure to brace himself with the various hand holds along the way. He climbed onto the stack of sails and soon was greeted by Nico lifting the hatch cover up and said for him to chill. “The wind is back down to 13 knots so we are in a wait and see mode.”

Juan relaxed in the sail locker, realizing that this was by far the most comfortable place on the boat and may return later on his next off watch to read or take a nap. A short time later Nico re-opened the hatch and said, “Go back to bed, we are staying with this kite.” Juan worked his way back through the boat and stuck his head out the companionway and saw smiles on all four of his crew member above deck. “Glad to see everyone happy” he said and thought what a comfortable feeling to be awaken with such a potentially bad situation and find out that everything is under control; definitely instills confidence in your crew and the boat. We are going to be fine for the next 48 hours or so dodging these squalls.