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HUGE storm clouds have been looming above the 'Spirit of Mystery' as she makes her way ever closer to the equator.
The
tracker system shows Pete Goss and his crew way out in the Atlantic
almost midway between the coasts of Africa and South America.
After
making excellent progress toward the end of last week, the 'Spirit of
Mystery' hit a brick wall as she sailed into the Doldrums.
Indeed on Sunday, she managed to cover just 25 nautical miles before the storms really hit on Monday.
Pete
wrote in his blog on Tuesday: "The last 24 hours have been non-stop
with huge storm clouds every six hours or so, and when I say huge they
are something to both behold and experience.
"In a sense they are potential hurricanes in the making, for if the
conditions are right these are the sort of things that go on to grow
into a self generating force of destruction.
"Sometimes they grow vertically as if reaching for the sky and you just know that there's trouble on the way."
When
one of the storms arrives, it's all hands on deck with the prime aim of
getting the big lug down and secured as quickly as possible.
The
crew then throws off the halyard and lets it run – if it's not down by
the time the screeching wind and heavy rain arrives the other end of
the boat can start to get obscured and damage will occur.
During
the better weather, Pete has had time to extol the virtues of 'Cobbers'
– 'like a thin scarf that when soaked in water swell up into a sausage
that keeps cool through evaporation and being round the neck cools the
Carotid Artery and they work for days'.
And
another highlight was conversing by VHF with a huge passing ship which
had carried coal from Australia to Rotterdam and was on the way to
Brazil to carry iron ore to Japan, a voyage that will take 31 days.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN
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