STORM RIDING

SAILING CENTRAL AMERICA IN LIGHTNING SEASON WAS A BALANCE OF RISK AND REWARD FOR CHARLOTTE DC AND JP BAUDAINS

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I've always found local winds fascinating. One year in France, while racing a Q Class in a classics regatta, a whole fleet of spinnakers blew up ahead of me as a waterspout ripped through the course with the Mistral – a wind so infuriating that it was written into old French law that if it blows for over nine days a cold-blooded murder simply becomes a ‘crime of passion.’ Cruisers hoping to enjoy a calm summer in the Greek Islands are often shocked by the Meltemi, a wind that jumps from 12 to 40 knots with little prior warning. And in a remote atoll in French Polynesia we found ourselves in boat lockdown whilst the Maramu raged through – a strong persistent sou’wester that can often last over a week.

The winds and storms that dominate the summer skyline in Panama and Columbia have been named the ‘Caleo de Pollo’, or in other words winds so powerful that they make the branches of a palm tree slick straight back to resemble ‘Feathers of the Chicken’. The treacherous concoction of Atlantic weather accumulating into this hot melting pot has earned the sail from the north coast of Columbia to Panama a place on the top five most dangerous passages in the world – and, in order to make our Panama Canal slot, we had to do it at the worst possible time of year.

We - my partner JP and I - met four years ago working on the prestigious 55m modern classic ketch Marie and the racing maxi Leopard 3. Soon after, our combined dream of circumnavigating became a reality when we bought a yacht to call our own. Since then, we've split our time between running and racing yachts professionally and sailing our yacht Jacqeau around the world. After an intense refit in Newport, Rhode Island, we sailed