Swinging on a cloud burst
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Sun 9 Nov 2008 23:01
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30:25.17S
175:56.92E
Hi Folks,
Sorry for the short blog yesterday we were all
tired after an eventful night, dodging squall bursts and some pretty horrendous
lightning storms, I was up most of that night and didn't get to my bunk till
later in the day, it all started with wind rising from the east and swinging to
the North , we put the 3rd reef in at midnight with all hands on deck, with the
wind building to 30 occ 35 and the seas also increasing to 3m , the seas
were made worse by the fact that the swell direction was from the west and the
wind increasing at first from the east then going north east, getting control of
the main , we put it in the crouch put the third reef in and left it there
, with the seas so confused we put the engine on to keep a more sready course
and started to run with the wind south away from the deepening low system, speed
was up to 8 knots with very bouncy conditions , I had a feeling that we were in
for a night of it again , I got out of my bunk and put my foulies on and went to
the cockpit were I found Ruth holding what can only be described as a 200 kilo
cows bladder , the sail had filled with water and spilled through the reef zips
down on top of her, we tried lifting it but it was so heavy we were afraid the
sail would spilt , Trevor and Rob came up on deck and we adventualy got the
bladder under control , the water flowed right down Ruth's and myself foulie
arms and neck , drenched to the skin !
After that the squalls became more prevalent
and the lightning started, Trevor changed with Ruth and between us we dodged our
way through the first bank of lightning using the radar to avoid the worst of
it, this went on for three hrs and into Lyns watch , as dawn approached the
squalls and lightning became less , nobody really got any sleep, we had cold
Cornflakes for breakfast to top a bad night at the coal face , as I looked
around at the deck gear I noticed that the main traveller sheet block on the
corner of the coach roof had been torn out of the deck , when I went below with
Lyn the aft bed port side was wet and there were four holes in the deck
head , off into the ply locker we cut a patch and screwed and silicone it to the
deck to stop any more water ingress as we were shipping water over the rear of
the boat occasionally .
The wind continued to build all day and
reached 35 knts at its peak , that evening we put the fourth reef in the sea
state calmed a bit , we had beens and sausage for lunch and roast pork ,spuds
and pees for tea , last night was a bit better , I slept all night but the rest
of the lads and lasses didn't do so well, that is because I'm an old sea
dog I suppose ..
Trevor has had a good blooding in this
offshore lark and has become the helmsman for the main sail changes as
bringing this boat to windward is a cast of will and strong arms, Rob and myself
do the Fwd deck work and it all runs like a well oiled machine , It bought back
memories of when Lyn and myself did sail reefing in Biscay same sea
conditions but it took an hr to get a reef in on my own , and about 15 mins
with the crew here , everybody performed top draw and Zephyr
sailed on into the night again overtaking two sailing yachts Sianara
,who we spoke to on the VHF we were in about half a mile of him , and passed him
to stb , he asked weather we kept a watch at night ! , also the next
day we passed Mr Percival , the good thing about the ANZAC net is that most
yacht check in each day so you know there positions daily , the group ahead of
us are all nearing journeys end , Skylax, Rob and Lou. Rampersat , Sam, who are
net controllers on various days of the week and who's dulcet tones brighten our
days up will be relinquishing there controller days on arrival at Opua , they
will be missed by all who listen in I'm sure ..
A few words say it all, that's chris's words above
he became quite verbose today and very keen to get some info onto the
blog. I think that he has been suffering from blog withdrawl and we have
allhad a bit of sleep deprivation withe wind and sea state. One thing I
can say is that the boat is very seaworthy and mostly dry ondeck. I say
mostly because we just took one over the bow which gave the girls on deck (men
below in the warm and dry) an impromptu cold sea water shower. No screams
of delight were heard but they did get a shower!!
Chris was up on the foredeck this morning checking
and tightening all the ropey and thingamy bits (they have all have names)
bottlescrew, rigging eyes,pins, shackles and pins its almost as bad as knowing
about knitting and sewing with its tucks,creases,plain and pearl. While
was up there doing his little stay out of the water dances we were in the
cockpit giving lots of practical adviceof the free and useless variety (who says
that byou can't have fun at the expenseof the skipper!).
I have discoverfed thaqt typing on a rolling boat
is not the3 easiest tasj (no corredctions in that bit) the boat moves up
down and around stops when it hits a wave,flicks this way and that way, cooking
becomes really interesting yet lynn managed last night to produce roast chops
and potatoes,peasand carrots and the weather was not nice. life on the
ocean wave has been interesting, slightly scary (3 hr lightning storms) fun,
sleep making and compulsory reading and relaxation time (not so much relaxation
with current sea state as youneed to brace and plan your moves before attempting
anything) wellitrstime for me to put me wet kit on and go up on deck so this now
seainitiated kiwi willsign off.
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