wave in a pitch dark night under 35 knots wind.
With the end of my mother-watch (which felt like a prison while there
was such strong winds and sea up on deck), I was back on deck last night
to enjoy the crumpets of the storm being past us. The night was as dark
as emptiness, even the horizon line could not be distinguished. Pretty
damp, with showers of rain or waves washing us every now and aganin.
The wind still strong, mostly around 30-35 knots, gusting upto 45
knots occassionally. The waves had reached their maximum strength after
two days of heavy wind, huge ocean swells. The swell would push to
turn the boat downwind as it approached the aft, job of helm is to keep
to keep the boat straight so the boat can climb on the wave, and surf it
down the wave as it speeds on its way beneath the boat. The bow of the
boat would heal down as we climbed on a wave, and the boat would speed
up up up as we climbed down it. Awsome, awsome, awsome sailing
The winds have unfortunately died down a bit, to 20-25 knots. We have
a blue sky again. The sea is still pretty rough, though with the swells
left behind the storm. I did a bit of more helming in the morning
(16.5knots was my top speed for the morning, ehehehe), and we had a gybe
without breaking anything (it was a bit of a challenge as the waves were
spinning the boat in every direction). So all is good...
We're a few days away from Cape Town now. Coming closer to the end of my
story for this race... Himmmm, will be missing so many things about this
experience... But until then,I will keep posting news as they happen
Keep an eye on me:)
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