Squall Day. Apparently we are on squall duty today, as we have had no fewer than five good squalls since early this am. They can travel in gangs of four or five, but usually only set one at you at a time, while the others go looking for other victims. Some are small and easily dealt with as they only blow 22 knots or so. They all move left to right and the small ones can be dodged, which can be useful as they may end up being suck squalls instead of blow squalls. Suck squalls are particularly malicious, as they come up on you all friendly like, then suck all the wind away leaving you bobbing around in very light air and nasty chop. We got mugged by one of these very early in the morning and spent an hour trying to get out.
On the other hand are the big solo squalls, these are very definitely blow hards and often carry rain with them as well. They can be up to a mile across and they do double duty as bouncers at all of the most popular thunder and lightning night clubs. We had run-ins with two of these today. The first around 0700 came across our course and we thought we could cross it by looking inconspicuous. It saw us and changed course to have a little fun. After some light rain and shifty breezes in the high teens and low twenties, it let loose with sustained puffs up to 28 knots for about forty minutes or so. Friction Loss dealt with it well and routinely surfed at up to 16 plus before the squall got bored with us and moved on. Clearly we were not be trifled with. Later at about 1400 or so, a big old squall loomed over the horizon with buckets of rain. It used the old dying wind ploy to catch us, but we knew what it was up to and moved to the flank to enjoy an hour or so of mid twenties and good surfing. This clearly irritated the squall and so it moved on at about twenty knots, muttering something about little layabouts not respecting their elders. Oh well.
We lost 3 miles to our foe Nancy. They seem to have the edge on us in the lighter stuff and we have the edge in the heavier stuff. They are 19 miles dead ahead now. Three and half days to try and catch them. The weather gribs don't show any promise of anything much over 20 knots or so, but the high is starting to move a little south, so maybe some isoar compression will happen. Keep your fingers crossed.
Cheers,
Doug Johnstone,
Friction Loss
