CONVERGENCE EMERGENCE

The easy gliding ended abruptly. The next morning, the sky ahead was bruised and swollen into a bulbous cloud frontline. Soon we were swallowed. A dreary gray, tumultuous sea giggled like a Jello bowl for as far as I could see. Narrow squalls swirled by like mini tornados. You could almost feel the atmosphere lifting up as we entering the Intertropical Convergence Zone, where the NE and SE trades collide and the only place left to go is?--UP. The mood turned downright gloomy, like the air was sad to be ending its long oversea journey. It wept and snotted all over us. Even the sea went into an odd panic. It looked as if there'd been a bomb scare and the wave peaks couldn't decide which way to run. They moved in every direction, colliding and spouting skyward in fright. I can't say Swell took the change too well, either. She seemed to be glowering down at the confused water like an irritated big sister--arms crossed, tapping her foot and rolling her eyes at their antics. "Can ya get it together already?" She seemed to say.

Sails in, sails out, up, down, rain, no rain, no wind, wind."Okay, I get it...the peace has officially ended!" I concluded. We swaggered and twitched onward with the help of the engine through the day and into the night until the ITCZ finally spit us out the other side around 10:30 that night into 15 knots of ESE winds and clear skies.

THE NUTELLA HYPOTHESIS

On my northbound passage from the Tuamoutus in January, I fell prey to the one thing that always makes me seasick--sweets. About midway through the trip I clearly remember thinking, "Huh, I feel great! I'm not going to get seasick!?" My spoon dipped fatefully into the Nutella jar and that was it; I felt under par for the rest of the time. It's a strange, uneasy sort of feeling--almost like you can fix it by eating something else. It then becomes a cat and mouse nibbling nausea chase--one only temporarily canceling out the last and then giving way to the debilitating sensation once more. So I am in the process of testing the 'Nutella Hypothesis' which requires avoiding all sweets no matter the intensity of the craving. If nothing else, this scientific experiment has made one thing very clear: the island destination of my choice. I can see it now--the soft serve ice cream stand right across the street from a vegetable market (and a barreling right).

740 Miles to GO,

LIZZY

South 5 01' & West 153 45'