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June 19, 1999
Hawaii to Tarawa Voyage, Update #47
Day 47. Saturday 19 June 1999 0328 GMT
Wind ENE-E 2-3. Heading 195M.
Latitude: 04deg 50.196N
Longitude: 178deg 31.432W
My target of 40 miles yesterday went pear-shaped when a 12hr storm swept in from the west around 7pm. For the first six hours it was mainly rain - but what rain! I've never witnessed such an extended monsoon-like downpour. It felt like being trapped under a waterfall, with the deafening roar of raindrops pounding furiously on the windows as if outraged at not being allowed in. I cowered in the rat-hole, reveling in the same snugness one has cuddling up to a fire on a wintry night at home. Every 2hrs I would wake in order to sponge from the bottom of the boat 2-3 inches of water that had collected in this short period of time from a 6 inch ventilation gap left in the hatch. When I tried to go out for a pee I was beaten back by raindrops that felt like air-gun pellets hitting my skin. I used a pot instead.
By 2am the rain had slackened slightly and the wind and waves kicked in instead. A couple of times I found myself thrown onto the starboard side of the rat-hole as Moksha was punched violently over onto her side. By 7am this morning the inside of the boat looked a right state: Tupperware containers of rice had emptied into the water sloshing around in the bottom of the boat, giving it the consistency of poor-man's soup. And the 'waterproof' kayak bag with all the tapes and CD's in it had leaked - so no more music. And more to the point, no more Jimbo Trout and the Fish People!
Now as I write the wind is coming pretty much from the east, making it a grind again to win each mile south. But this is OK, as according to the GPS we are out of the main stream of the counter-current and there is little or no current trying to drag us back north. All sounds so boringly 'shop' I'm afraid, but this is what rules my life at the moment; whether the wind is from the ENE or the E; whether there is a 0.5 current running against me or not. One day I will have a life again.
Jason Lewis,
The Moksha motor
Posted on June 19, 1999 1:55 AM