Going Troppo

I haven't seen the sun for five days now, so its no wonder things down below - I'm talking about the boat - are a bit damp and gloomy. Nothing seems to be getting any drier, as yet again today we've had a uniformly grey sky and intermittent showers of rain. Rain seems to be able to get in to places that splashes of sea from the front of the boat mostly miss, so my usual possie up under the Dodger on the Port side is wet, as rain spatters directly in or else drips off the aft end of the dodger. So I cant sit there as my shorts will just get wet, and if I put a cushion there instead - well it will get wet as well so apart from sitting on my haunches there, or standing in the cockpit - both of which I do - I am sort of confined to the cabin - and again I am limited where I can sit because of previously mentioned soakings. Nevertheless I find things to do - such as read the newspaper from the week before last that I have been keeping for such a time - and I haven't started on its crossword yet as it's the only one I have aboard - I'm treasuring just having it there unsolved for now! I have increased my daily chocolate ration and other snacks too, and earlier, when the wind was light and there was no rain went round the boat and checked all the bits and pieces I could think of to check, finding one shackle nearly undone but everything else fine.

Progress has been slow , but we are getting there though with frustration today. The wind is light and variable, mainly around 6 -8 knots with an easy swell . The boat is having an easy time of it, apart from the rain, rolling along at 2 to 3 knots and up to 5.5 when theres a gust. Numerous times since last night I have thought the wind was about to change, or to set in at a steady pace, or the showers have finally ended and the boat is going to get dry and the sun is going to come out - all to no avail, as the wind dies off again, a new shower drenches the boat, the wind stays light and from the North, our speed drops back to 3 knots and the sun remains invisible behind a dense cover. And at night there are no stars, no moon, not even some luminescence in the sea, which seems barren and empty during the day as well, hardly a bird to be seen. I am reminded of what happens in the Northern Territory in Australia around September or October I think it is, where they endure something known to them as "the Build Up" - this is the transition from Dry Season to Wet season and is a period of rising humidity, building cloud, thunder and lightening that then recedes, off and on over a few weeks to finally end with thunderous tropical rain and great relief to Territorians who apparently go a bit troppo whilst waiting for the rain. I say this because I feel a bit troppo myself, I feel I am having my own Build-Up waiting for the forecast wind shifts, the end of the showers and the return of the sun.

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