Pacific Ocean
Well, things look better today than last night. About 9:30 I saw a storm cloud building so I closed the windows. Dan was snoozing and he woke when I told him there was a storm ahead. It really got black quick, we were moving into a big big black cloud fog then the whole sky was black and at the 2:00 position we saw a break in the clouds so we headed for that. Well it eventually closed up. The storm had been on our port side running with us. I looked on the radar, it was huge.
We kept going south, thought we could beat it and maybe it would go behind us. But it was engulfing us. There was a big wind just in front of it. Dan got on his rain coat and held the wheel. He was struggling a bit and it was down pouring rain. As the rain let up a little he decided to go forward and take down the jib and pull in the main and reef it down. So we were better prepared for more of this. We had the motor on for more confidence. Now we are totally engulfed and we decided to change directions, maybe we can get out of it by going the other way - so we went North. Rain wasn't too bad since the winds were light.
But now it is starting to lightning. Oh my gosh, now that is scary. It just lights up the whole sky. And it was behind me so I couldn't see the actual flash, just the sky light up. That didn't seem to be working, I was watching the radar and couldn't decide what to do so I told Dan I would drive and he could look at the radar. He couldn't get off the wheel soon enough. So I downed my raincoat on and took the wheel. It was a warm rain, not too bad.
Dan saw the same thing - a big green monster had captured us and how should we get loose? So we changed directions again to the West and again to no avail. The lightning then seemed to be on my port side right next to me. Not good. Later after 3 hrs of this I asked if we should just sit still and let the storm pass.So we did. We put Auto to work steering and buttoned up and went below. We watched the radar and had tapioca pudding. Then I layed down. My watch was at 3:00 so it was gone but we still had heavy clouds around us. Every time I saw a black one I started to get a little spooked.
All and all it wasn't as bad as the ones up North. I guess that is what we really remembered. But this is the first time for lighting. We have had three friends get hit by lightning and ruined all their electronics. We did pray for wisdom and guidance and all your prayers helped too. Praise the Lord we got through just fine. So keep the prayers coming. Thank so much to all you friends. Till later Sandy & Dan
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