BIG Wind. BIG Waves. Day 13

Yesterday afternoon things got a bit spicy! We had a LOT more wind than what was forecasted.  I have found that in general the wind has been higher than forecasted by 30 to 50%.  Mother nature’s real version of the wind does not quite resemble the neat little wind graphs I get on my computer screen.

So, the forecast for yesterday was for wind in the high teens, with gusts in the low 20s  What we got was wind in the mid 20s with gusts to the low 30s, significantly more than forecasted. In addition to more wind, we had very difficult seas.  There were two good size swells running, around 10+ feet in size.  One came from behind us, and the other off our port (left) side.  When we got hit by a large swell, it would cause the boat to roll one way, and then a second one would hit knocking us back the other way.  We had to compensate for this roll with steering since it would knock our stern (back of the boat) to one side, causing us to counter steer to the opposite direction, only to have the next wave kick us back the other way, and we would rapidly turn the wheel back the other way.  This caused a very uncomfortable roll, back and forth, in addition to the big wind causing us to heel over.

Otto the autopilot did NOT like these conditions, and he started mumbling something about labor laws, OSHA, unsafe working conditions, blah, blah, blah, so we had to just shut him off. Chris and I spent the next 10 hours hand steering the boat, switching off every 1 to 1.5 hours depending on how tired we got. It was VERY demanding conditions handling both the wind and the waves.

The rest of the crew mostly stayed down below in their bunks since it was not comfortable anywhere else.

During the day the swell continued to increase in size and by late afternoon we were seeing some as large as 15’.  Both Chris and I rode the boat down the face of a couple of these beasts hitting speeds of over 13 knots.

Another variable that added to the difficulty of steering the boat was the excess weight we had on board due to all the gear we needed for long term cruising. I am guessing we have 1,500 pounds or so of extra weight, which makes the boat more sluggish and the wheel harder to turn. As we would have to turn the wheel from side to side to handle the wind and waves, I started thinking about the person who built our rudder for us 20+ years ago.  I was hoping that had a good day and did an extra good job in its construction, because our lives were dependent on that thing holding together under extreme loads!

The BIG Blast

Around 4 pm Chris handed the wheel over to me so he could go down below and rest.  There were some dark clouds looming on the horizon, and I did not like the look of it.  The wind was still in the mid 20s gusting to 30+ with 15’ waves.  About 15 minutes later I felt the wind pick up.  Suddenly it jumped into the 30s and stayed there.  I yelled for the crew to come up and reef our jib, while I tried to keep the boat heading straight downwind.  Then a gust hit at 40 knots. The wind was blowing the tops of waves off, which is a good indicator in you are in the 40 knot range of wind. The crew did an excellent job reefing the jib.  With the reduced sail area it made it easier to handle the boat.

The swell continued to build as the wind increased.  And then I heard this low roar behind me, and Jade’s eyes popped wide open and she said ‘you don’t want to look behind you right now!” Suddenly we were on top of a 20+ foot wave and the boat staring going down the face of it.  It was more like a free fall than surfing a wave.  Our speed jumped to 14.8 knots as white water was flying everywhere.  Somehow, I managed to keep the boat under control and we kept sailing along with our hearts pounding.

At that point I was getting pretty tired trying to keep the boat under control in the wind and waves.  There was no where to go to run for cover, we were in the middle of the ocean.  We prayed out load for God to just bring the wind down a bit.  About 15 minutes later the wind started dropping into the 20s.  Man that felt so easy now!  Over the next hour the wind and waves slowly eased off until around 7 pm we were back in the mid teens of wind speed and 10 foot waves. 

WOW we were glad that was over!