It was the twentieth day at sea. We hadn't made it to the Maldives as I had anticipated and so I spent my thirtieth birthday on the open water. I do not care for such events too much and didn't mind. The wind had died completely and the sea was back to appear like mercury again. The engine was pushing us along at a constant speed, just another day and the usual routines. It was the last time though, Alex and Andrew had to clean the bird's poo away. All the birds had finally left and we stood a new chance of getting back to having a clean boat.
The next morning our landfall at the Maldives was planned and we didn't have much more way to go. Thus, we were running along easily until early evening when clouds holding rain and probably some wind could be spotted all around us. It was the darkest one that hit us, after it had stayed alongside for so long and had already appeared to pass us by. The winds rose instantly to over 15 knots and more and heavy rain started pouring down, decreasing sight to maybe a hundred meters. All the sudden we were caught in the midst of a grey nothingness holding a strong wind to tear heavily on our boat. We let the sails out as quick as we could, the captain trying to steer manually after our autopilot had failed once again. The rudder, having way too much freeplay, went everywhere and so did the boat. In the first burst of wind the boat had been kicked to the side so hard, the boom of the main sail had almost touched water. Our fridge door had swung open and knocked over some of the power switches for the instruments and we were sitting blindly, every one of us occupied with a task and unable to turn the switches back on. I was holding the main sail while my brother did the mizzen sail, the wind increasing and decreasing constantly with every burst and every boats turn. Our captain was trying to get the rudder under some control while the cook was under deck securing the port holes. After the wind calmed just a bit we got the instruments back working and had a quick break to put the rain gear on. Even though we were just about on the equator, the strong winds and cold rain made us freeze quickly.
It wasn't too long and the squall went as sudden as it had come. Everything was wet, not a chance to sleep outside comfortably and we'd become cautions for the rest of the night. Another squall hitting us in complete darkness while we'd fallen asleep on the watch would have been dangerous. But, fortunately, the rest of the night remained calm and soon we could see a dimly lightened spot in the distance. The Adoo Atoll was close.
captains log:
very light winds, have to motor-sail
no wind, flat calm sea, slight swell from SE
E = 329,75h
1200 S0°7 E70°49
30. Birthday of Frankie
wind 0-2 kn NEE
check oil, water, diesel, all ok
1st ring of the main sail falls off, replaced by rope lashing
deck cleaned of bird-shit by Alex + Andreas
1930 get hit by sqall drop M, plenty rain
2000 stop engine
23-2400 run E
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