Day 14 and night of 13

Last night was interesting! We didn’t make a lot of distance last night but we had some good learning again. As we are approaching the ITCZone, squalls are beginning to show up around us. So far they have been mild and quite refreshing😂. Adrian went to sleep at 20.00 and we were rolling along nicely making our way south west towards the equator. Around 2100 I checked the rador; clear! I checked again at 2200 and I noticed big clouds on the screen however 2 nmiles east of us. I returned into standby mode and kept my eye on the sky around me. All of a sudden rain started and I thought hear we go! The rain turned into terential rainfall and wind picked up! Our first squall at 8degrees North!! A milestone! I already had minimal sail up so I didn’t bother taking it down. The squall lasted 5-10 minutes and then NO wind. Sails started slapping and boom moving out of control as a result of large wave action and zero wind. I have a furling boom so it’s quite heavy, and needs to be cinched down. I decided to take sails down as the banging and slapping was driving me crazy. With all the aggressive slapping of the main sail, the batten plastic track lead (?) must have broke off. Getting the main sail down was no problem but when trying to raise it, it won’t feed into the track. Another thing to fix on a calm day. Whenever that may be??? The furling boom is wonderful 99% of the time. I do have to be super careful when raising and dropping it. Many people wouldn’t have one for offshore sailing and I understand why. The furling boom has advantages but can be a concern. They are easy to operate from the cockpit on your own. In the event sail gets stuck, one can pull it down fully by hand and tied off around the boom. Things to ponder for future boats!

I slept between 0300 and 0600!

For now, I’ll be using Genoa and 25% of the mainsail. Come to think of it, that’s mostly what I have been doing.

Sun is getting warmer, waves should be decreasing in size, and we are getting closer to equator!

I believe we are halfway to French Polynesia!

Loads of potatoes, lots of apples and 1 cabbage, three grapefruits, six rock hard oranges is left of our fresh fruit and veggie supply.

At 08.30: N 08* 45 W 126* 38

COG: 200T SOG: 6 kn

Approaching the conversion zone..