Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
could forget so quickly where I was but not be conscious of being anywhere in particular,
just somewhere in my imagination for a while away from reality.
By then we were well into the ITCZ, or inter-tropical convergence zone, as the pilot book
described it. You know you are there when all around you is blue sky and blue water, and it
is sometimes hard to tell where the one starts or the other ends, and dark, umbrella-shaped,
electric storms are scattered about on the horizon.
These were isolated pockets of energy with incredible bursts of rain and wind and lightning
for a short while, and then they would peter out and dwindle to nothing. Some were a lot
larger than others, and one thing was for sure, you would sail through one. It was a blessing
to sail into one of these storms, and we actually sought them out and would make a beeline
towards them when spotted.
They would provide gallons of ice cold water which afforded a great shower which was so
refreshing after a long, hot spell, and they were also useful for filling up our water tanks
with sweet, fresh rainwater. We learnt to be quick about the shower aspect, or you could be
all soaped up and the squall ended with no more water from the big shower in the sky! We
found the best way to do this was with the mainsail hauled up as much as we could with the
topping lift. This formed a large funnel made of sailcloth, and the rain would collect within
it, and a torrent of ice cold rainwater would plunge onto the deck below. Once the showers
were over, the decks would be washed clear of soap and saltwater by rain action. We could
then open the water tank trap on the deck, and pools of freshwater would gurgle into and
fill up the tanks.
Another very important aspect of these squalls was the sailing benefit they offered. We
could choose which we needed most: a shower and fresh drinking water or a robust sail
towards our destination. At times these squalls were very large, and we could get in several
hours of great sailing, albeit wild and hair raising. Sometimes it was the only wind in town,
and you took what you could get!
It was the lightning side of these storms that worried us. It is quite nerve wracking to stand
under the mast, the tallest structure for miles around, certainly in the storm, all wet and
soapy, with lightning flashing all around! Indeed, we did get struck by lightning not once
but on several occasions. Fortunately, it was the stainless steel mast cap that got struck,
and the forestay which was attached to the bobstay chain ending below the water line. The
charge passed harmlessly down the stay and earthed into the water. Many a boat has come
to grief or caught fire as a result of not having an earthing device. A strange phenomenon
usually accompanied these lightning strikes: the mast plate would glow green for hours af-
terward. This is a fact, and not a fabrication as so many people accused us of. (Something
similar to this in nature is St. Elmo's fire.) One important precaution to take in these storms
