Captain's Log

March 23, 2003

Hello all,

Where to begin ??

How about pre sunrise yesterday morning. Thunder, lightening and 35 kts winds giving my jury rig a real test and then appearing out of the mist and showers, a freighter less than 1/4 mile away. No way he saw me until the last minute, likewise as I have do not have a Radar working since the mount failed 2 weeks ago. Next rain squall and I see a freighter bearing down on my position about 2 miles away. Then we both disappear into the squall. Visibility less than 1/4 mile and we did not see each other again. These are the first 2 ships I have seen since New Zealand and they were both near misses.

Since that morning excitement, it has been one squall after another for 36 hours, non stop, no breaks. 50 degree wind shifts and winds from 5 kts to 28 kts. The latest and what looks like the clearing front has had fork lightening that was all around the boat. Nothing to frazzle your hair kind of lightening, as has happened before, but too close for comfort on a boat that freely admits to relying on its electronic toys !!

Being a Bermudian, we love to catch water. For those of you who have been lucky enough to go to Bermuda, you will notice that the roofs are white. All of them. These are limestone washed and there are gutters than funnel the rain water into tanks below each private house. Apart from a few homes that have ' Well water ' catching from the sky is each households only way to collect water. So I have been collecting water in my mainsail with great success after using only 80 liters in the past 43 days. My fresh water tank is now full again. As I don't really need this much water for the next 5 - 7 days to Salvador I will have a shower every day at sunset. What a luxury.

It was 1650 nm to Salvador when my D1 broke and now 750 nm remains. With a little care and a lot of patience, I will continue to nurse BTC Velocity to port.

Congratulations Tim and Kojiro on great performances and enjoy the sultry Salvador. I will be there soon.

Alan