Maunie of Ardwall - Day 15 - strange golden globe spotted in sky

Hello from the Maunie crew on day 15 of our transatlantic meander. Yesterday saw us, at last, return to some predictable and relatively steady wind so we flew the Parasailor from 11.00am until sunset. We did consider leaving it up overnight but, after the previous night’s squalls, decided we didn’t want another drama getting it down in the middle of the night and  so returned to goose-winged white sails. It turned out to be a wise decision as we were overtaken by several very wet rain squalls with wind speeds of up to 30 knots. At one stage the lightning was so intense that Rich described it as looking like a WW1 battle and Di put the laptop in the oven (it acts as a ‘Faraday Cage’ if there’s a lightning strike to protect the contents)

 

This morning, for the first time in two days, we have some sunshine! It gave us the chance to complete the clothes washing process started two days ago but Graham had no sooner hung things out to dry when a huge rainstorm arrived to give the clothes an extra rinse. Also on the domestic front the breadmaker has delivered an excellent loaf after two failures (both bread mixes brought from the UK so we guess the hot storage conditions did for them) and yesterday’s Dorado / Mahi Mahi will become a fish pie this evening.

 

As you may have seen from the Fleet Tracker, we’re currently heading slightly north of west, trying to get into more stronger north-easterlies so we have the Parasailor up and, guess, what, it’s raining again. The rain has brought around 24 knots of wind so Fergus is enjoying a combined upper-body workout and sauna at the wheel whilst the rest of us below are just getting the sauna. The boat is rocking and rolling as we surf down the waves at nearly 8 knots so all entertaining stuff! Whilst on watch this morning, Di grated the carrots ready for another carrot cake but with the weather this afternoon may put the baking on hold!