Hard 24 Hours

We have had a difficult 24 hours of sailing through near gale conditions punctuated by squall-related wind surges to over 40 kt every 45 minutes or so.

Yesterday afternoon I realized that we were carrying too much sail for the strengthening winds. Heaving to was tempting but it was important to keep moving on this High at all costs. I expected the wind to veer to the NW putting us on a broad reach. I don't like running with the mainsail because of the danger an accidental gybe. Much better to pop out a bit of head sail and be pulled along with little harm from accidental gybes. I did not think that the staysail was suited for the task. When under load it constantly agitates the inner forestay sending a shudder throughout the boat. Worse, its sheets pass between two of the shrouds and cannot be used for easing the sail. Finally, I did not know what the night had in store and I did not like having a sail up that I could not control from the cockpit. This put me in a difficult position that I had foreseen with the staysail: having to go on the foredeck in rough conditions to drop the sail.

The foredeck is narrow and has a curved surface, with the short rails on the sides. The conditions were horrible: wind howling across the deck, the boat wildly pitching rolling and yawing, and sheets of water racing across the deck every few minutes. I managed to bring the sail down and lash it safely with two crawls to the foredeck but it was a dangerous and exhausting effort to be avoided in the future. On the way back to the safety of the cockpit after the second visit to the foredeck I realized that in the heat of battle I had forgotten to clip on my lifeline.

Then it was time to drop the mainsail. That was no picnic either but it was safer and more straight forward than the staysail job. That left the boat lying ahull very comfortably and soon I rolled out a small bit of headsail - no. 4 maybe - and proceeded on a broad starboard breach. That configuration carried us through the night through gusts of over 40 kt that would put the boat down to the gunwale and round her toward the wind. I had asked Steve Hartley of Taskers to make me a workhorse headsail that could take 40 kt winds and he produced a laminated sail that is so thin at the front that I can see stars through it but heavy at the back to cope with strong winds. That sail has not let me down yet. As for the staysail, it will go back into the locker at first opportunity.

About an hour later I was in the cabin talking with Brenda when we got hit with absolutely no warning by a wave that hit the cabin like a sledge hammer. Brenda looked up and saw green water through the main hatch. Even in the Tasman Sea we had not been hit by anything this hard. Fortunately I had taken to buttoning up the companion way in case this very thing happened. We were not knocked over very far and the sails and monitor wind vane were spared of damage. The only damage that I could see was to the port side of the cockpit dodger.

The night was a difficult with the boat being pounded on the starboard side all night. This brought back some of the old cabin leaks: all along the starboard side and the starboard vent and over the navigation table. There are no leaks in strong driving rain but sheets of water over the cabin is a different story. I think that there is a problem when the water floods the companionway hatch and runs up the tracks into the turtle. This investigation will have to wait until I am back in Australia.

In the middle of the night I got two grib files that promised us relief at about 6 PM in the day (winds down to 20 kt). This cheered us both up. Also cheering was the chicken dinner that Brenda had managed to prepare in the pressure cooker. I cooked some rice to go with it for lunch then threw the leftover rice into the pot and reheated it for the evening meal. For lunch today I threw in a can of garlic tomatoes and had another great lunch. Fortunately Brenda has been able to hold down small amounts of this healthy and nutritious broth. We will finish it off tonight.

This morning I downloaded a full set of weather faxes from Pt. Reyes California. It looks like we got caught in a "squash" zone between a High and a Low further to the SE. The weather fax had the word "gale" written over the area where we were at. Fortunately all indications are that sailing conditions for us will steadily improve during the next few days. Anyone who would like to see what we escaped from should see the big deep and nasty low about to hit the Juan de Fuca area.

Our plan was always to ride on this High to San Francisco. But we were expecting the only kind of West Australian High that we know of: one that brings clear blue skies and serene winds. This NE Pacific high brought gale winds, squalls, and rough seas that we had not anticipated.

Anyway, we think that we are over the worst. Brenda managed to improve through it all, though only slowly with lots of sleep. Other than the disappointing and irritating cabin leaks the boat held up well, with the Jeff the wind steering doing a miracle job of steering this boat even when waves knocked it 30 and 40 degrees off course. The batteries have provided all of the power that we need and the communication system has worked beautifully. And the beer is still cold.

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