Robin’s Blog Eight part 2?
Day Forty-Eight of Indian Ocean Row
The last few weeks has seen us hoping for big winds in the right direction and a large following swell. Well, 50 days in our hopes have been answered.
The winds have been between 20 – 25 knots more recently have been up to 35-40 from time to time and we’ve made good progress. After that, things got a little hairy. We thought the waves would all be coming in the same direction as the wind but this has not been the case. For the past 48 hours, the waves seem to have a mind of their own and are coming from all directions. And they are big – we’re talking four story house sized waves, and when they meet from different directions, they seem to get all excited and produce beautiful white and turquoise water. We gaze at them, marvelling at their beauty before realising they are going to land right on top of you. The force at which they do is phenomenal. We find ourselves almost knocked off our seats and the boat almost completely underwater.
Barry saw the GPS recording speeds of 11.2 knots, which would normally be applauded but in this instance, we are going 11.2 knots sideways. To try and put that into context it would be like seeing a double decker bus sized wall of water coming at you, and it has been raining too. Proper driving, stinging your eye, horizontal-type rain. This looks beautiful at sea, kind of like snow being driven across frozen ice. It also cleans our gear of salt. Unfortunately, it takes us in any direction it wants to. We will be more specific for what we want in the future, as wearing tough wool right now!
Don’t forget you can donate here
Related posts
