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June 15, 1999

Hawaii to Tarawa Voyage, Update #44

Day 43. Tuesday 15 June 1999 0319 GMT
Wind E 1-2. Heading 180M.
Latitude: 06deg 39.035N
Longitude: 177deg 28.792W

The rain came in early yesterday evening just as I was finishing off working on the pedal unit (which is working fine thank goodness) and continued with increasing intensity into the evening. By the time I turned in for the night (around midnight), distant lightening flashes as well as one or two noticeably closer had me lower the wind generator mast horizontally onto the cockpit roof and put my high-tech conduction devices (a bike lock, a water pump handle and a bent fork) into the water to protect from a strike.

My night, as have been the majority for some time now, was fitful. The continual lunging of the boat lying parallel to the swell combined with the claustrophobic confines of the rat hole that sees very little ventilation makes for a challenging environment for sleep. By 4am each morning I usually find myself wide-awake, cooking in my own sweat and fighting the fumes of soggy clothes hanging in the netting above my head. The only way around this is to lie hanging half out of the sleeping compartment which allows plenty of access to fresh air, but also to being irrigated with regular dousings of cold sea water and rain that enter uninhibited through the hatch.

I woke this morning at 7am to a waterlogged boat and more rain, now heavier and more consistent. I'd forgotten how disabling rain can be on a long trip. If you're just out for the day, you can get absolutely soaked safe in the knowledge that you have a warm house to go back to afterwards and a stove or drying cupboard to dry clothes. But when out in the field for weeks at a time, persistent rain can rapidly make life a misery. Things get wet and stay wet, and one finds oneself putting on the 'driest wet thing I've got'. Such is life at the moment.

The situation is not helped by the need to keep the hatches open enough to let air in while I'm pedaling. From what I understand this is typical ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone) weather so I'm going to have to get used to it for the next week or so.

Jason Lewis,
The Moksha motor

Posted on June 15, 1999 1:40 AM