Wednesday 14th July (Lini’s Journal)
Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Sun 25 Jul 2010 23:31
Si looks really under the weather (Haha, very witty Lini!) today
but sightings of several pilot whales while I slept and his daily chat
on SSB to Dick on ‘Aliesha’ were bright highlights in a grey day. Our
winds backed as forecast enabling us to get some northings in to later
avoid the Bay of Biscay. As forecast they also increased together with
the seas making black night watches horrible. Not wanting to wake Si I
watched the gusts getting stronger and eventually had to call for help
to deeply reef the sails. During Si’s second watch we were going way
too fast in winds over 30kts and I jumped from my bunk to stand by
while he dropped the mainsail: I have insisted he doesn’t go outside
the cockpit without calling me. With just a deeply reefed working jib
we were still making good speed through the rest of the night and with
first light the foul conditions and seas could be seen and not just
felt. We later found out that poor ‘Aliesha’ had spent much of the
night hove-to in winds over 40kts.