08:05S 101:57W

 

There are signs on our hatches that say “not to be opened at sea”. Before heading to sea we religiously shut all the hatches – opening them once we’re out there if the seas are kind with no chance of taking wave on board. When we’re on port tack we ignore the sign on our small bathroom side hatch because in the eight years we’ve owned Bandit (and sailed through some fairly boisterous seas) it’s never taken any water. It provides much needed ventilation for the aft cabin when all our main hatches are closed. With this particular passage being very wet we’ve had to keep the main hatches shut but risked leaving the aforementioned hatch open, taking plenty of waves on board but with no drama.

That was until last night.

I was sleeping fitfully as Bandit rocked and rolled her way through the horrid seas while David was on watch. Funny how you hear the waves coming....this one woke me as it hit the deck and I heard it race along and then, like a waterfall, it came crashing through the open bathroom hatch. Most of it went into the shower but a fair bit went on the bathroom floor, some got onto the carpet in our bedroom and all our towels hanging up got drenched. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy!! Half asleep and not impressed I was ankle deep in water baling frantically and trying not to slip over on the varnished floorboards. Lesson learned – hatch now firmly shut.

Meanwhile we bash our way westwards hoping to reach calmer waters. We have put our faithful autopilot Zak back into service. He’s been fairly redundant since we installed Harry the hydrovane (wind vane steering system) but these big confused seas have meant that Harry has struggled to stay on course. Having Zak on as well keeps Bandit on a much better course and stops us getting bashed around quite so much. On this morning’s net other boats near us showed their frustration with everyone having similarly rotten conditions. Most have reefed to slow their boats down to make life more comfortable. We have two reefs in the main and a partly furled genoa and are trucking on allright but it’s still pretty hard to do anything. Boats further ahead are reporting calmer seas – we can only live and dream. I have a lot of housework to catch up when the seas finally calm down including washing all the salty towels!