Earlier today, I was ambling along nicely in the sun, hoping my planning of ITCZ avoidance/minimizing would continue to work out as it has for the last two days... I even thought of putting up the 'chute.
My radio problems are still there, unfortunately - other boats have problems hearing me. I'm only managing a Sailmail connection with San Luis Obispo (N. of Pt. Conception) - occasionally with Panama. The only Winlink station I can ever connect in with is near Austin, Texas - but from the map, that's not so far as the 'crow flies'...! And that only happens around sunrise/sunset times.... Oh, well...!
Well, I'm now well & truly into the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone: where the Northern hemisphere NE Trades meet the Southern hemisphere SE Trades, often forming the Doldrums - NO wind) .... Light grey overcast started at 2pm PDT, by 4pm it was really humid, with dark grey clouds in sight to S and by 5pm we'd been hit by a sudden SE squall. I had to reef hurriedly and gybe the main (which had backed & was being held by the preventer ...) It's still raining but not so hard & the wind is ESE - E - ENE (varying somewhat but definitely not NE) -so I've changed course slightly to stay on port tack - if we get another squall, at least that will be OK!
In true British tradition, I'm having a mug of tea while I consider whether to let out a reef or not!
Of course, for the second time this passage, I got my shower with all that rain but not in the way I'd intended..!! And a full mug of coffee came shooting across towards the chart table where I was sitting later when we got bashed by a bit of swell - that took some time to clear up.....
Hope you all have a good Easter holiday!
1800 GMT position: 07deg 14' N; 125deg 10' W . 24hr distance run by log: 121 n.ml. (actually 130 ml over ground - still some useful current effect)
The good news is that I'm definitely over halfway - ETA in the Marquesas is 11 days' time, hopefully! Cause for celebration....