Tropical sailing equals squalls...

The last passage of our Brazil cruise was an easy one and there is no need for a blow by blow description. We were blessed with excellent weather. Prevailing winds are North Easterly, so we were lucky, given our destination in the North East to get Easterlies all week. 

However. The squalls, a prominent feature of our tropical sailing experience, were back in force. After a hot summer a train of thunderstorms built up out at sea, a series of billowing cumulonimbus clouds came shuffling across the sky, loaded with rain. Bringing brief but very intense downpours and gusts they are not so much a hazard to navigation as an irritation. During the day they pass and we huddle in the cabin sitting out the rain. During the night they seem to arrive whenever you get your head down to sleep, and shake the boat to keep you awake. 

I have tried to describe them before, but given a video is worth 10,000 words and all that here is a brief snippet of me caught out helming during one such squall.