Now this is more like sailing!

Breaking gear, ripping sails, and starting to believe I am not alone onboard - I must be single handed sailing!

I have lost track of time since I last posted. Its now Wednesday May 14, because my watch says so. I am just turning over the north tip of Sumatra in the company of -- count them - nine tankers, according to my AIS, which, incidentally started working again when the storm clouds cleared.

Last night I fell asleep in the cockpit to be rudely awakened again by the fury of my boat charging off into the dark under the lash of a another squall. In fact, for the last two days, every time I fall asleep, I am so sleep deprived, it is the sound of wind howling in the rigging and my boat out of control that wakes me. This is rude. I am now afraid to go to sleep, but of course I must, and when I do, I have this waking up experience. You can see my problem!

It caught up with me last night when I woke inside another squall and failed to get the mainsail down quickly enough. With a POW, it blew open from the front to the back, and left me to drag down the flailing tatters. I have a rather foreshortened version back up flying today, but that is okay because it is all I should have had up in the first place. In fact, I have given up on full sail, and am content to barely move, while I wait for the next blow.

So, I have found the weather to be seriously challenging. I guess, if one goes sailing in the monsoons, one should expect a fair bit of rain, but this is more than I bargained for. And wind! Yikes. For the last two or three days (I have lost track), it has been solidly overcast with storm cells embedded in the cloud layers. About every two hours or so there is another rip snort- en brother along to lay down upon me and smite me and my little boat. Winds go from less than 10 knots to 30 and 40 knots and sometimes stay there for 10 minutes but once it blew like that for over an hour - just long enough for me to get my storm jib out of the garage and get it flying. And rain. It rains so hard, it hurts to look. So trying to get sail up to keep the boat moving one minute, and trying to get sails down to keep ourselves afloat the next leaves not much time for beauty sleep.

And that is all I have gas for today!
C