There are times when words simply aren't necessary. We're sitting outside on the aft deck with our evening cup of tea, just soaking up the atmosphere - alone in our thoughts, but together in our silent appreciation of a moment of beauty. The sun has just dipped below the horizon, trailing thin wisps of pink cloud in its wake, and the first star is twinkling brightly above us. Moments like this make up for an awful lot of the less than delightful aspects of circumnavigating the world.

We're glad to be on our way after the pointless and expensive delay in Acapulco, but I'm suffering from a pounding headache (just a little too much sun), and Alan's insides are still not quite right, although on the mend. At least there's a respite from the direct heat of the sun, even though it's still hot and sticky.

We've been warned to watch out for mini tropical storms - we could get several on our way to Guatemala. It's about eight o'clock Wednesday morning when we hit the first. We're crossing the Golfo de Tehuantepec at the southern end of Mexico, and I'm on watch. We've been in a following sea, but now a wind springs up from the south-east.

Alan staggers out of his bunk to cut the throttle a bit, then collapses back into a deep sleep. The transition from doing 17 knots and a gentle rising and falling in a moderate following sea to the rhythmic thumping up and down of a head sea and just 10 knots is pretty rapid. I can see the dark shape of a rain storm passing on our port beam, about five miles off.

But within ten minutes, it's passed, the wind has dropped, and the sea has calmed down again. It stays like this for about half an hour before the next storm hits. This one stays with us a lot longer. According to our weather fax, it's tropical storm 13, the previous was 14. The whole front is about 150 miles long, and we seem to be taking the storms in descending order.

Needless to say it's not pleasant. The swell is coming from one direction, the wind from the other. Result - pain, and the boat's speed reduced even further to 7 knots.

But as always, there's an upside. Tomorrow will see another leg finished, and a refuelling stop in Guatemala. That's twenty-three down, and just seven more stops before we're back in Gibraltar!

Clive Tully

Copyright Clive Tully ©2002
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