With water temperatures in the mid twenties, the cold and dampness of the Southern Ocean feel are miles away. It is shorts and T-shirts, champagne sailing at the moment as we are on the verge of breaking into the trade winds. The hot water does come with one special feature for us here on the HUGO BOSS: squalls….especially in the transition area between the cooler southerly winds and the warmer moist trade winds these rain clouds develop into impressive systems that can last for hours. So far we have bumped into two of them, used at least six to our advantage, and managed to avoid most others. No doubt over the next week we are going to encounter many of these, as water temperatures increase further towards the equator.

The trick with these clouds is to identify them as a “sucking” cloud or a “dumping” cloud; is the cloud still in its building phase where it will suck in air, or is it dumping air out of its base? Rain is a good indication that the cloud is a dumper, and that we can expect good winds on both its front and the flanks. The sucking clouds are harder to identify, and here the opposite is true; you want to avoid getting stuck in light wind in front of it, and rather use the stronger winds behind them.

Fortunately the squalls have only two periods in which they are very active; the early morning and late afternoon. In these two-three hours sessions we are both kept busy with sail changes, waterbalast in/out and trimming and driving the boat all the time to cater for the varying conditions. Typically this is around breakfast and dinner time, so the trick is to time these right and not be left with half eaten portions.

Also, with a week since our last shower on the Falkland islands, we are in desperate need of a good wash, so the shampoo is ready to go for when we get the first real good long rain squall with the right water temperature, drying conditions after, and most important a long enough and powerful enough water supply to both get a good wash with the shampoo and a good rinse to get rid of it all. Get it right, and it will be the best shower ever, have the taps get turned on you too early and you are in for an itchy night…

Wouter