Since yesterday, Hiva Oa, our destination, is closer (as the crow flies…) than Puerto Vallarta, where we departed from. We are “only” 1400 nautical miles away! Also yesterday, we officially entered the ITCZ, and immediately experienced one of its peculiar features… squalls, which are temporary thunderstorms that can last from several tens of minutes to an hour or more. After a brief welcome taste with a short-lived squall that nevertheless took us off course by 5 miles, during the night we experienced uninterrupted torrential rain for about 2 and a half hours. The boat enjoyed an extraordinary cleaning, and another positive side effect, the disturbance brought wind that allowed us to turn off the engine for a while, often the propulsion of choice in this area of equatorial calms. The next few days will be marked by the hope of finding some gust of wind (as happened today to our positive surprise), and by the attempt to avoid squalls, evident to the naked eye during the day and visible at night as more or less large monsters on the radar. The goal is to cross the calm zone as quickly as possible, which these days is between parallels 7 north and 3 north.
Radar view of the large squall
So now the dilemma is… clouds on the horizon, should we fear or should we chase you?
Half way through
Since yesterday, Hiva Oa, our destination, is closer (as the crow flies…) than Puerto Vallarta, where we departed from. We are “only” 1400 nautical miles away! Also yesterday, we officially entered the ITCZ, and immediately experienced one of its peculiar features… squalls, which are temporary thunderstorms that can last from several tens of minutes to an hour or more. After a brief welcome taste with a short-lived squall that nevertheless took us off course by 5 miles, during the night we experienced uninterrupted torrential rain for about 2 and a half hours. The boat enjoyed an extraordinary cleaning, and another positive side effect, the disturbance brought wind that allowed us to turn off the engine for a while, often the propulsion of choice in this area of equatorial calms. The next few days will be marked by the hope of finding some gust of wind (as happened today to our positive surprise), and by the attempt to avoid squalls, evident to the naked eye during the day and visible at night as more or less large monsters on the radar. The goal is to cross the calm zone as quickly as possible, which these days is between parallels 7 north and 3 north.
So now the dilemma is… clouds on the horizon, should we fear or should we chase you?