The sea has a mind of its own and our thirtyfifth day it would reveal part of it. Supposedly, that was the day we had hoped to arrive, but in the morning, we were still just under a hundred miles from our destination. During the night my brother had done a long watch and grabbed whatever speed he could get from the tricky sea and its turning currents. In the morning, just as it had been the day before, conditions worsened. The wind shifted against our favour and increased, building up a sea. By noon, high waves were hammering against the ship. They were steep and would rise the bow far out of the water just to let it drop a split second later to crash into the next wave almost bringing the boat to a stop. Everything seemed against us, the waves, the current, and the wind. After fiddling around for over an hour I had finally found a course and sail setup that would yield decent speed. My brother later complimented the setup by setting an additional foresail pulling us through the waves much better. But, we had only few hours to use as we knew the evening would bring changing conditions once more.
The waves punching the nose of our ship had taken its toll soon as I saw a piece of timber, obviously broken of our boat's front, floating by. The captain wanted to recover it, so we had an instant man-over-board training. We stopped and turned around trying to near the broken piece as the waves were shaking us badly. Our first approach missed by a couple of meters. We made another turn for another try coming much closer this time. I was hanging out of the boat, leashed to its side, trying to grab the floating board as my brother pulled it towards the boat using the boat hook. I couldn't reach all the way down to the water that was constantly going up and down with the waves. Finally, my feet slipped at the side of the boat and I was hanging on to it with one arm while grabbing the timber with the other and passing it up to my brother. Still clinging on the the boat with only one arm it needed a hard pull to get hold of the boat also with my second hand before I was able to pull myself out of the water.
The timber saved and stowed, we just thought the job was done, when my brother discovered, the nose of the boat needed temporary fixing now. It was there that the board had broken off and on the other side, there was timber missing as well that we hadn't been able to recover. The bow was jumping up and down badly as I approached it. I leashed myself to the boat before I started to tighten rope around the loose timbers on the nose. Sitting on the bow and fixing the nose felt like repairing a rollercoaster cart while actually on the ride. I was lifted up into the air about five to six meters only to be dropped and crash into the water a moment later. After a minute, I was soaking wet. I held on firmly to the rope I was using as well to anything else I could get my free hand on whenever the ride got too bad. That way, it must have taken me more than half an hour just to tighten to ropes around the nose. Towards the end, I actually started to enjoy the ride. Still I was glad, when I was done and returned to the safe cockpit, bruised and scratched in a many places.
The waves punching the nose of our ship had taken its toll soon as I saw a piece of timber, obviously broken of our boat's front, floating by. The captain wanted to recover it, so we had an instant man-over-board training. We stopped and turned around trying to near the broken piece as the waves were shaking us badly. Our first approach missed by a couple of meters. We made another turn for another try coming much closer this time. I was hanging out of the boat, leashed to its side, trying to grab the floating board as my brother pulled it towards the boat using the boat hook. I couldn't reach all the way down to the water that was constantly going up and down with the waves. Finally, my feet slipped at the side of the boat and I was hanging on to it with one arm while grabbing the timber with the other and passing it up to my brother. Still clinging on the the boat with only one arm it needed a hard pull to get hold of the boat also with my second hand before I was able to pull myself out of the water.
The timber saved and stowed, we just thought the job was done, when my brother discovered, the nose of the boat needed temporary fixing now. It was there that the board had broken off and on the other side, there was timber missing as well that we hadn't been able to recover. The bow was jumping up and down badly as I approached it. I leashed myself to the boat before I started to tighten rope around the loose timbers on the nose. Sitting on the bow and fixing the nose felt like repairing a rollercoaster cart while actually on the ride. I was lifted up into the air about five to six meters only to be dropped and crash into the water a moment later. After a minute, I was soaking wet. I held on firmly to the rope I was using as well to anything else I could get my free hand on whenever the ride got too bad. That way, it must have taken me more than half an hour just to tighten to ropes around the nose. Towards the end, I actually started to enjoy the ride. Still I was glad, when I was done and returned to the safe cockpit, bruised and scratched in a many places.
At nightfall, we were approaching a long dark band of clouds, unsure if it held rain. Even though we missed the rain and our boat got only a few drops on one side, The clouds brought an even increased wind right at us. I had the first night watch and managed to still gain a couple of miles. By the end of my watch a raging sea had built up not allowing to make more than one or two knots most of the time. I went to sleep immediately, but it would be a short night.
captains log:
0300 up Genoa, current all over the place
0715 overcast sky, NE 10-12kn, down Genoa
0945 upwelling, nearly stop, up Genoa
1130 loose part of bow-sprit in big wave, manage to pick it up
1200 N7°08 E96°35
1300 up Staysail
1900 Rainsquall wind 20kn
wind gusty 20kn
sea very rough, make no way
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