Yinne-koek

Day 23 of the Return trip

 

There is only one word needed to describe last night: Bedlam.

 

I have to bust this entry out pretty quickly, as things have not yet entirely calmed down.

 

Start off with this image in your mind: Picture a little fat kid, on a tricycle, going down a steep hill, with no brakes and his feet off the pedals. That was us last night.

 

Basically, when the wind finally swung around to the North-West, it cam through with a vengeance. We were getting gusts of over 30 knots before the sunset, which increased to very frequent gusts in the 40s as the night went on. What made the conditions so crazy was not the wind. It was the waves.

We weren't getting the nice long South Atlantic gentle-giants. These waves were short, steep and aggressive, with many anomalous waves hitting the quarter.

 

Before the sun set we tucked it in for the night, putting the second reef in the main, putting the gybe-preventer on and poling out the jib. In order to try manage the worsening sea-state, I slung two spinnaker sheets and the old main halyard from the stern of the boat. I had never done this before, but heard it recommended numerous times before. The ropes serve to help with directional stability downwind, take the sting off the the crests of the impending waves (thanks, Kelvin Thomas), and slow the boat down somewhat.

 

I'm not sure how much they helped with the third one, because we still maxed out at 18.1 knots, and got well over a 200 mile day.

 

Steering the boat was difficult for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was pitch-black. We're around the time of new-moon, and the clouds destroyed any hope of light from the stars. Most of the waves you didn't have to see, tough. You would hear the growling of the white water behind you as the stern of the boat got picked up. So take the picture of the little fat kid and add a blind-fold.

 

Fatigue made it a bit more taxing as well. Dave and I did tag-team driving through the evening and the night. 3 hours on and 3 hours off. We were poked by the end of it.

 

 

 

As I write this, the breeze has settled down to mid-twenty knots. But above that, the sea has calmed down into those nice long swells that we like so much. We could delegate a good couple of hours of the morning's driving to Ric which helped a lot.

 

Now it would seem that the fat kid is nearing the bottom of the hill, and may need to start climbing again soon...

 

BR