Storm is over, back to normality. After a couple of nasty and
uncomfortable sailing days we just hoisted the small spinnaker and are
finally heading east at decent speeds. The computer has recalculated the
expected date of arrival in wellington and instead of some crazy date six
months in the future we finally show arriving in the early days of
january, fingers crossed that’s what will happen.
Sailing through the stormy conditions of yesterday and the day before was
wet, tiring, cold and uncomfortable, we went down to storm jib and 3 reefs
in the mainsail and beat for hours on end in 35-40 knots with gusts to 45.
The sea state was horrendous as for some reason we keep coming across
random surface currents sometimes in favour sometimes against of up to 2
knots, in high winds these currents contributed to stirring a very nasty
sea with cross waves and no apparent pattern or sense… occasionally the
boat would climb a wave from nowhere at right angles and fall from the top
into a trough with the loudest of crashes, i kept checking the floor and
keel box for any signs of damage, maybe i was being paranoid, but with the
closest piece of land nearly 2000 miles away you tend to worry about these
things…
Through the worst of the winds, when it was blowing solid 40 knots under a
rainy sky the colour of lead and charcoal, rain drops would hit your face
with such violence they hurt, they hurt your eyeballs when you tried to
look forward and any trip to the cockpit involved a total soaking.
Today when things got better we first hoisted the staysail, then removed a
reef from the mainsail, then it was time for the solent, now finally we
are flying our smallest spinnaker, the A5, and the spirits are definitely
much higher although both Hugo and I are tired, the stormy conditions take
their toll, you are never quite there, either trying to sleep in wet
foulies, or forcing some food your stomac does not really welcome or stare
at the instruments hoping you dont have to go outside to be wipped by icy
water…
The Indian Ocean has already given us a few kickings, the first night of
this leg and now these last couple of days: you fear it in a different
way, with that feeling that yes you must try to avoid the worst as you
don’t want to find out how bad it really can get. We tacked south to avoid
the worst, added many miles and lost time, but glad we did so, when it was
blowing 45 knots we started to feel we were no longer in full control, it
was not dangerous yet as we could have of course run downwind or hove-to
or dropped sail, but we could not sail in the direction we wanted and we
were being thrown about and started slamming uncomfortably, we certainly
were not racing, just pushing forward.
Thanks for all the messages of support you sent us during the worst
moments, for those wanting to send us a message please do so through the
satellite service at www.marconannini.com/sms, it’s free, dont worry, we
pick up the bill!
A massive thank you also to those that thought of us during the storm and
sent us virtual gifts of beers and steaks to keep us motivated using the
webpage www.marconannini.com/help
