Journal Entry - May 28 & 29, 2008 - Heave To, One, Two, Three Times

Author: Pam

I am feeling much better today, thank goodness. I was able to function for most of the day, however it took a fair amount of energy as the wind and the seas have picked up and it was a bit wild today. We spent the afternoon making chili in the pressure cooker, it came close to qualifying for an Olympic event, but with a lot of precise management and four hands it was a very successful endeavor. The even better news was I felt like eating it for dinner. The conditions for using the BBQ were definitely short lived, it is amazing how quickly the sea state changes. It has also been cloudy with squalls all day.

The wind and waves continued to increase, making it a rough and long night. At 0500 while I was on watch we had a very unnerving encounter with the first ship we have seen since early Sunday. It drove directly at us, came within a half mile and then crossed our path. It felt very deliberate, as though they came to have a look at what probably showed up as a very small target on their radar out here in the middle of nowhere. We could see the starboard running light, which is a good thing because it means we were looking at the side of the beast, but Scott tacked away just to be safe. Definitely far too close for comfort.

It has been a very difficult two days. We have been in big, confused seas since early yesterday. We have had to heave to several times to deal with issues on deck. Scott has been on deck five times and for more than two and a half hours. That is five more times than either of us are comfortable with in these conditions, but it is often these conditions that cause the issues on deck that can not be ignored. One of the tasks was to rig the staysail, which we are now using because it is smaller and heavier than our head sail and it provides more stability in rough conditions. Scott is incredibly brave and without his bravery to that degree we could not do what we are doing.

We have been hammered by one huge wave after another on all sides of the boat. Each wave dumps gallons of water into the cockpit, some of which finds its way down into the forward or aft cabin. Water is dripping from everywhere and running down the mast onto the cabin floor. The entire boat is wet and so are we. While we were hove to I tried to clean up the interior of the boat and make it somewhat livable, it appears this is going to be an on-going challenge as long as we are being smacked by waves. I am also finding it takes a lot of energy to move from point A to B on the boat, I have a multitude of new bruises to show for this little torrent of 30 to 40 knots of wind and the waves that are coming with it.

We hove to again for three hours to just sit, try to recover from the day and to make dinner. In these conditions sometimes the best thing you can do is take a little time for you, especially when you are already making very slow progress. After dinner we had to get sailing again in order to wash the dishes, because if the boat is healed to port, sea water rushes up through the galley sink drain. Washing up turned into an Olympic event with clean and dirty dishes flying around the cabin, one plastic bowl committed suicide. Before I was finished we got hit by a wave and half the dirty dish water slopped out of the sink and down the front of me. However, when we were finished we agreed the effort was worth it for a hot meal, we hadn't eaten all day.

We finally got sailing again at 2200, already an hour late for our watch schedule to begin only to discover a new loud cracking noise somewhere on deck every time the boat was picked up by a wave and dropped again. We had to heave to AGAIN so Scott could go out on deck, this time in the dark and with white water raging past the boat to manage the fenders tied to the rail. They were the only possible thing we could see in the dark in the location of where the noise seemed to be coming from and they were being dragged by the sea to their possible peril. We got sailing again only to discover whatever the noise was, it wasn't the fenders. Bugger, there was nothing else we could do under the circumstances, we will have to deal with it in the morning. Needless to say it was a very rough night on top of an incredible day. According to the weather map it looks like the wind will begin to ease a bit tomorrow, I'll sign up for that.