[password]minerva
[position]05°51.50'S 177°52.07'W
[status] Slow day in very light winds after an "interesting" Monday night.

Shortly after John declared "This passage has been so peaceful it almost feels like a vacation," (the kiss of death) things rapidly deteriorated. Large areas of convection were showing on the radar and lightening was lighting the skies nearby. We fired up the engine to implement squall avoidance maneuvers but it wasn't long before the engine overheat alarm sounded. Inspection revealed that 2 belts were shredded and a third had slipped off. After making a disaster of the boat to reach the needed parts, repairs were quickly made and we were back in business just in time for the encore production.

This time the squalls were much larger and more numerous and we soon found ourselves surrounded by lightening in all directions. For four more hours we motored in circles at full throttle dodging convective clouds that were spitting out spectacular lightning bolts hitting the water on all sides of us many times only a mile away. Each time a semi-circular line of squalls would move on by, marauding replacement troops lined up to chase us down yet again. Twice the B & G instruments shut down and restarted themselves after flashing crazy colors, and the computer - disconnected from the boat at the time - crashed and came back up (whew!) with settings changed and minus some of the data in OpenCPN, our PC navigation program. Around 3 AM we were overtaken by squalls but by then they had expended their electrical energy and we were spared.

The forecasts indicate that we should be north of the convergence/ trough at present and the skies, while cloudy, do not look as foreboding tonight but we are already seeing some lightening in the distance so our fingers are crossed. Hoping for a more peaceful night! 1005 NM to Majuro.
[speed] 4.7
[heading] 335T
[weather] Wind 5-7k, 105T. 60% cloud. Seas 1m. Bar 1009. Lightening off to east.
12/5/2018 7:00 AM UTC
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