day 12

Kahia
Paul and Catherine Davis
Thu 22 Dec 2011 17:56
16:43.07n 56:52.61W
Well, what a night. High winds, high seas and torrential
rain.
Before sunset we noticed high mares tales and cirrus
clouds with dark foreboding clouds at the horizon behind us and decided to put
the third reef in the mainsail, partly furled the stay sail in and half reefed
the foresail. Good job we did it then, as the night progressed the wind rose to
Force 6-7 with gusts of up 35 kts, so gale force conditions with very rough seas
and heavy rain. We battened down the hatches, stayed down below decks and left
Kahia to get on with it, which she did beautifully, letting seas crush over her
but never pooped once.
With the sun shine today things look brighter, although
we still have a force 6-7, it feels less dramatic, more like a force
4-5...
We managed a days run of 162 NM and have another 290 to
go.
The conditions are moderating and should be better
tomorrow.
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