Atlantic Crossing day 19 Oh Squally Squally night..

SeaWalk op reis
Sergej & Isabelle Berendsen
Fri 12 Dec 2008 12:26

 Well that sure takes the fun out of sailing. If big cross seas aren’t enough, every hour or so we’ve got a squall coming our way.

 

The cross seas are annoying and very tiring. SeaWalk has been side swept five time The impact of a huge roller on the side of SeaWalk is so great that the steering doesn’t cope anymore and she loses steerage. Which means she turns her head into the wind.

 

With the Jib and Genoa on the poles this is not a preferred sailing position. The windward sail, the jib, is backed against the wind and SeaWalk heels over. A sprint to the steering wheel takes care of it. On time I was on the toilet and rather incapacitated as one can image. Isabelle was awake so she took care of it. But it just doesn’t feel nice. So a new rule was introduced, the watch is always in the cockpit.

 

We tried different setting of sail but it just made no difference. So the watch was stuck to the wheel for most of the day. Sailing watches are mostly single-handed (when Yannick is on watch I try to catch up on sleep and vice versa) aboard SeaWalk. Luckily Isabelle can jump in if nature calls but she is also very busy with the kids and also has slight sleep deprivation as a result of it. Her nights are also short but she is in no position to sleep extra during the day. Of course her mind is set to everything that goes on at night. Any reefing, gibing or setting sail wakes her up and from time to time she will come into the cockpit to ask whether everything is okay. Reassuring for us to have an extra pair of hands but not good for getting a good nights rest.

 

If the cross sea wasn’t bad enough, here come the squalls. And not just one, no for two days on end a steady procession of squalls are coming our way. Some are small but some aren’t. For the non sailors a squall is nothing but a big rain cloud. Sometimes it just rains, sometimes there is a little extra wind and sometimes in the front of the cloud there are gale force winds. And when it rains it usually is a tropical downpour.

 

Around 21:00h last evening we spotted a huge, 3 mile wide squall. We tried to dodge it but it looked like it was changing course with us. No way could we escape it. So we put on our rain gear. Isabelle suggested we should drop all sails. Sighing I complied, we been changing sails a lot these last days and my hands are getting a bit raw.

 

Not a moment too soon. As soon as we secured the Genoa on deck, the squall hit us full force. Isabelle figured the wind around 50 knots. On the wind instrument  it gave a maximum of 60 knots but our wind instrument gets a little confused when hit with gale force winds from one minute to the next. Isabelle is better at guessing wind strength.

 

Even so, big winds for sure. Wow. The whole world around us changed – The wind swept up the seas, the rain flattened it out. All around us the sea and sky looked the same dark green/greyish colour. I wouldn’t like to get caught in that wind with the Genoa still up. We have a Genoa on hanks, the old fashioned way. So it takes a trip to the foredeck and some muscles to drop the Genoa in strong winds. And you need someone in the cockpit to handle the lines. I can do it single handed, but not as fast.

 

Yannick and Isabelle can’t do it single handed. So we reefed down for the night running on the Jib (which is on a furler and easy to roll in single-handed). The Jib is great but not down wind. She’s just too small for the job so the speed was gone.

 

But with sleep at a premium, especially for me, we definitely needed to keep the boat underpowered.

 

St Lucia is getting closer every day, 522 miles to go, ETA is the 16th – approximately  4 more days to go…..