Tuesday 10th September 2013
Day 23
09°25'S. 125°14'W.
789nm to go.
6.30am
Well first off a big Happy Birthday to The Captain's daughter Marian, I know you would of had a great day. xxx
9am
Oh boy it's rough, we are going through the worst seas ever.
I don't even know how to explain it to be honest.
We had to change coarse early in the day, as the way we were going we would not make it to the Marquies at all.
The only downside was that is was going to be a very rolly, uncomfortable, ride.
Well uncomfortable was not the word, it was shocking.
I was so tired as I only had a few hours sleep, but no matter what, I could not sleep in these conditions.
We even wedged cushions under the mattress to try and stop us rolling off, but nothing worked, the rolls were shocking, we would get rolled over so far to one side than back to the other side.
It was so bad that we could not even go down below.
The strain was showing, with a snappy moment between Captain and crew, we decided to change coarse to try and settle it down some.
This resulted in sheer horror.
I can honestly say I have never and never ever want to experience, an ocean as ugly as this ever again.
It was horrible, we had 25knts and over of wind, gusting gale force, 15 to 20 foot waves sometimes more, and choppy as hell.
The waves were crashing the whole time on top of us, we were getting thrown every which way.
At least three times the boat even stopped dead in the water, this we can not explain, it was like the anchor was down and firmly held in place and we were going no where.
Aut ( the auto pilot ) could not cope at all, and Just kept turning off, which resulted in just making it worse, we would spin all around wildly.
In amongst all this mess was a commercial fishing vessel. That the AIS sure told us was around as the alarm was constantly blaring away, the whole time, we just had to ignore it and hope like hell it stayed out if our way.
The Captain tried everything he possible could to get some control, of the situation, from hand steering, racing from one winch to the other, letting sails loose, tightening them up pushing buttons on Aut ( when it worked ) but nothing seemed to help, even starting the engine, and trying to power through it did not help, which ended up with the kill switch, broken and having to lift the floor boards to turn off the engine.
I tried just to stay out of his way, and let him fight with it, I felt so helpless, but he assured me, it was better to just let him do it.
I just sat on the top of the companion way steps and held on, tears streaming down, I was so scared.
This one particular wave hit and I sat helplessly watching my laptop, go airborne off the nav table, and crash onto the floor, it actually dented the floor it hit so hard, and just watched it slide and smash from one side of the boat too the other, I could do nothing about it but just watch.
then everything went flying, doors flying off lockers, the contents flying everywhere, Vic's laptop in our cabin, crashed onto the floor, along with all the baskets their contents dumped all over the place, and the galley OMG, what a mess.
There was so much stuff on the floor, that you could hardly, even see the floor, in every single cabin.
Even in our most roughest conditions all this stuff is usually secure and stays put.
The next big wave, resulted in so much water on the boat it was almost on our side again, then it washed off a gas bottle that was on the side deck, and all my fresh bait, I was so not happy about that one, and the strain on the sails, resulted in a bracket thingy snapping off the main mast, The Captain had to go out in all this to tie the mast with a stay rope so it would still work.
And it just did not let up for hours on end, by this time we were both so exhausted, it was sheer madness, but eventually the choppy seas settled some, and the wind has died down a lot, but it's still rough and sleep is very hard to do.
Am sitting here so upset holding on with a death grip, just hoping that it goes back to normal soon, we are both reaching breaking point.
Well tomorrow is another day.