Fowl Weather

Tuesday Morning June 29, 2021
Latitude 44o 19’ N
Longitude 50o 02’ W
(1674 nautical miles to Fastnet Light, Ireland)

Sunday evening Dick Hiatt sent the following message from his home in Huntsville, Alabama using our Iridium based e-mail: “Heads up. Winds your vicinity SW 25 to 35 as of Monday 15 UTC becoming N 15 to 25 by Tus 03 UTC.”
Dick is a longtime friend and ex-Navy Chief who, when he’s not sailing on board the Lillian B, has provided weather information for virtually all her blue water adventures. It’s not as if she can outrun the weather but knowing what’s on the way is good for moral and helps us prepare the boat for the coming weather.
As predicted the winds increased in strength and blew cold as they shifted around to the North and the waves grew to the point where the inside of the boat sounded like the inside of the dryer when I forget to take empty my pockets. Books flop side to side, cans roll, unsecured doors slam open and shut, teacups spill, and the neatly organized row of spices bounce out of their rack and fly across the galley … to name a few. Fatiguing when you’re on watch and not easy to sleep when you’re not. Crew member David Carstens says he’s looking forward to one of the calm days listed on the Pilot Charts. Meanwhile we tolerate it as best we can, sometime even with humor, in the knowledge that sooner or later Dick will send some better weather.