Evening All,
Today dawned very cold, bleak and wet... Just as Bob (METBob) forecasted... The swell continued to increase through the night causing Climate Action Now to get shoved around a bit... I was again cautious on getting a wave large enough to come in through the hatch so I firmly closed the main companionway hatch just to be sure. I am glad that I did because when I ventured out this morning there was mild carnage on deck. I must have had a really big wave over in the night knocking me down. Whilst I remember the boat getting knocked over I don’t recall hearing the amount of water needed to do what was done.
When I got on deck there were ropes trailing behind the boat from where they had been ripped off the winches. Also, and probably the most telling was the fact that the wood from my centre deck hatch was lying tangled in the safety railing. Before I left Albany one of the extra safety features we added to the boat was the fact that we doubled up the Perspex hatches... We unfortunately did not have enough to do this to all the hatches so the middle hatch, that did not need to be able to have the sunlight come through, Paul who was a great help, covered it with a sheet of 18 mm plywood. It had grooves cut out to allow me to open the hatch from the deck.
The idea behind doing this was that if I was 'pooped' by a wave, meaning a big greenie wave breaks on the boat with a lot of force, I was less likely to stove in the hatch. In this case the hatch was fine but the sheet of plywood was ripped off. I managed to retrieve the plywood and when I get conditions that are dry again I will re-glue this back on.
Also though the night I must have been shoved over so much that the boom was once again in the water with enough force to break the preventer line again. I had the pleasure of enjoying a cold walk forward to the bow to retrieve it and re-set. I have been getting some great surfs in on the waves so it was actually a lot of fun on the bow watching the water shoot past at 15 knots +. The biggest surf that I have had is 17.2 knots today so going well and hopefully bringing up my averages.
The winds though out the night were from the NW at 25-30 knots with a swell up to 5 meters. They seem to have started easing a touch. I am now seeing more 20-25 knots and the winds are backing towards the west so I will be making a course towards the NE tonight. The swell has also lessened a bit but not dramatically so.
It does feel like I am in a bit of a washing machine at the moment and it tends to make even the simplest of tasks difficult. Not to let that stop me from feeding myself. I decided to make some pancakes today. They were delicious, smothered in Dick Smiths Foods Strawberry Jam. A nice change from my usually meals. The food has been great. The only trouble is that all the freeze-dried pasta dishes taste exactly the same. There is only so much of the Cheddar Pasta one can eat... We did arrange it so that I could add things to the meals like beans, mushrooms, corn or olives. These do help break up the flavours…….. but it’s still the same tasting cheese……..Having pancakes is a real treat just for that flavour change.
I just wanted to add that as I was writing this we just surfed a wave at 18.7 knots so that is the record for the trip so far... Wahoo.
Well there is not much else to say here. I am just enjoying the opportunity to go fast without the need to push the sails. I still also have the No2 reef in the main sail and a small amount of the No2 Jib out. Conditions are likely to keep the same for the next few days at least.
Goodnight
#lisablair
#climateaction
#capehorn
