Year 7 Day 239 Rockin' & Rolling'
30 August 2014 | Heading Toward Cosmoledo Island, Seychelles
Dave/Mixed With Strong Winds
We were having such a great sail throughout yesterday and into last night. When I took my watch at 1000 the sky was clear, the stars were shining in their magnificence, the wind were a nice 16 knots and the seas, while a bit bumpy, were tolerable. However, only 1.5 hours into my watch I glanced up at the sky and discovered the stars were complete gone from one horizon to the other. Oh, Oh�...
I turned on the radar and spied a line of squalls making their way toward us. Fortunately, the squalls did not hit us as they passed by but the winds piped up a bit and were now on the high side of 20 knots. When Portia came up to relieve me at 0100 they had increased to 25 knots and another squall was about to hit. We put in a second reef in the head sail as we already had a reef in the main. I stayed up at the helm with Portia until the squall had passed us and then bid her a good night in hopes that the squalls were now over and the winds would return to their more benevolent behavior.
I was woken up from my sleep by a call on our walkie talkies from Steve. We have one walkie talkie up at the helm and one in each of the master suites. We use them to get people up if we need help at the helm. I got dressed and ran up to the helm to see what the problem was.
The winds had not calmed down as they were still blowing 25 knots, the seas were now just plain ugly and another large squall was about to hit us. Steve and Portia had wisely decided to put another reef in the main and wanted my help.
We quickly pulled in the head sail, turned the engines on and turned into the wind to put in the second reef. It went in very smoothly and soon the winds were blowing 35 knots. Whew, just in the nick of time!
I was wet and tired so I went back to bed looking forward to some more sleep. At 0630 we got another call from Portia and Steve saying that the second reef line had failed. Damn.
Soon we once again rolling up the head sail, turned on the engines, turned into the wind and now reefed the main sail down to the third reef. With three reefs in the Main and two in the head sail we slowed down from doing 10 to 11 knots to doing between 8 and 9 knots. The ride was a bit more comfortable with the lower speed but the swells were massive and with the winds howling at 25 knots they were breaking and, at times, crashing against our windward hull, throwing water and spume over the deck and cascading against our bimini and its side panels.
Since it was now time for my watch Portia went below for a well-earned rest but Steve stayed up with me at the helm for a while. It was nice to have his company as the waves pounded us and the wind howled.
It has stayed this way all through today. The winds varied between 20 and 28 knots and the seas were typically 4 plus meters and steep with only 6 second periods. Ugh. As Portia told me this afternoon, they remind her as to why she no longer likes the rides at fairs.
We are trying to slow Leu Cat down as much as we can so we will arrive at Cosmoledo Island in daylight tomorrow morning. This evening we will throw in a third reef to match the three reefs that are in the main to do that. Once anchored we hope to make repairs and then may consider leaving the next day as the winds are predicted to mellow a bit and be more from the ESE. That would be good a thing as it would let us steer more toward Madagascar instead of to the north, toward Mayotte. We shall see�...
As of 1730 our position is 08 50.20'S:049 07.44'E, our course is 244 degrees T, our speed is 8 knots. We have made 248 nm, our average speed is just under 8 knots and we have 105 nm to go. The winds are from the SE (150 degrees T) at 25 knots. The seas are just plain ugly.