My friend Nigel has taken it upon himself to send me helpful emails to guide me after checking my progress on the map, generally along the lines of ‘LEFT A BIT’ or ‘RIGHT A BIT’, but it was my father who shouted out ‘IT’S BEHIND YOU!’. Hurricane Irene is still following hot on my tail and is now about 400 miles away, gaining about 100 miles a day.
I feel rather like the heroine in a 50’s sci-fi film fleeing through the night from some ghastly blob from outer space which is lumbering along behind me, all tentacles and glowing slime and that kind of thing. I keep looking over my shoulder and flailing my arms helplessly while tripping over my heels and getting my pretty little red cocktail dress caught in the undergrowth, and slowly but surely the blob is gaining on me.
What I need now is an all-American hero with a big weapon and a shiny uniform to come rushing into view to save the day, but sadly they’re in short supply out here in the middle of nowhere. All I can do is carry on scampering as fast as I can, ready to duck down a dark alley and huddle in a doorway if the monster gets too close, hoping it’ll go rushing by without seeing me.
Or to put it in slightly more nautical terms, I’m currently back on my original course making the best speed I can which is about 6-7 knots in a generally ENE direction. Irene is about 400 miles behind me travelling east at 8 knots, but is generally expected to veer to the north any time now. If so I should be OK, but if not I’ve still got a couple of days to watch the situation and decide what to do.
Since I’m still some way north of the hurricane I could in theory double back onto a more north-westerly course and hope to get up above the centre of it so I’d be in the so-called ‘navigable sector’, where the winds are a little less extreme although still rather more than I’d like.
My preference once I’m sure that it’s going north is to either carry on heading east if I’m far enough ahead or turn south. Until then I’ll just carry on as I am, keeping the speed up as much as I can.
Meanwhile having largely prepared the boat for a blow I’m now preparing myself, which means I’m spending a lot more time sleeping and eating than before. Well, that’s my excuse anyway, as the crew needs to be well-rested and full of energy before facing the storm! The books all advise you to prepare some food before-hand but with 50 cans of Red Bull and several large packets of chocolate chip cookies I reckon I’m ready for anything.