Squall city

The trip from Fernando to the northern bump of Brazil was champagne sailing. Calm waters and the wind behind us. Then the squalls started. We could see them approaching on the radar and the winds would go from 12 to 30 kts in a minute. The worst one so far was yesterday. Three honks on the hooter means all hands on deck and you just know that there’s going to be a bit of drama. The winds shot up and our boat speed started approaching 12kts (the safe speed for this boat is around 8). The boys jumped into action: Furl in the genoa, engines on and turn into the wind. This is the worst part because the boat is all over the place and things fly around the galley. The rain was pelting down and there were three drowned rats at the helm station, having the time of their lives. The boat speed dropped to about 3 kts and we stayed into the wind until the squall had stopped its little hissy fit. And sorry for you if you had forgotten to close your hatches and port holes. Then, just like that, the wind dropped so low that we had to put the engines on, the sun came out and asked us what the problem was, and life was back to normal. Until the next one…
(Side note: You have port holes on the starboard side, but not starboard holes on the port side - they’re also port holes. Hopefully that sorts out any confusion! 🙄)Read more