Low Brings Nasty Weather

After twelve hours of hellacious, gale force conditions things are slowly beginning to settle down again aboard "Avventura." The low pressure system arrived right on cue and lasted a few hours longer than I had anticipated, bringing a bit more wind than forecast. What's that mean? 12 hours of 35 knot plus winds, including a three hour stretch of winds over 40 knots (about 50 MPH). Spent the worst of it with just a triple-reefed main up making little progress, and mostly waiting for the low to move onwards, which it has since done. Rain assaulted us from midnight till 1000, and it has been highly uncomfortable to say the least, but now we can all say we've been through a storm in the North Pacific (and I never have to do so again). Speculation abounds that the source of the storm was Kevin's comment in Hawaii (which he since took back) that he would like to see some bad weather just to experience it. Despite the Atkins contingent talking him out of that statement, Mother Nature heard all she needed to and we are now a statistical anomaly: we encountered a gale where the pilot charts say there was a 0% chance of finding one. Things looking brighter now, though mountainous hills of water continue to bombard us at over 10 feet. More to come later when things are more comfortable.

June 30-1200
36.43N by 138.52W

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