First a quick parental advisory warning. The first part of this blog will be about the statistics of the second week or our voyage and is rated for all audiences. In the second part I will explain the events of our first storm of the trip. Some of the information might be disturbing to parents or loved ones who tend to worry about us. I do not write this to be sensational or to boost the readership of this blog, rather it will be to our sailing friends who might benefit from our experience and some of the lessons we have learned. (Sorry Moms but try not to read the storm part.)

Week 2 stats. Miles to go- 1908 Nm Miles made good- 1448 Nm Miles from Stanley- 1498 Nm total miles sailed- 1475 average daily run- 101 Nm (down from week one of 109) average speed - 4.23 kts best day- 142 Nm worst day- 40 Nm average wind- 25+ kts highest wind- 60+kts calm- 0 engine hours-0 heater hours- 12 total fuel used- 2 liters fuel remaining onboard- 239 liters conclusion- Week two has been more difficult then was week one. The wind has been stronger and more shifty making it more difficult to keep the boat comfortable on the optimum course. With several days of strong weather we have had the mainsail down and run under storm jib and jib only, sometimes with the storm trisail. I guess considering we are still averaging 100+ miles without the mainsail, we aren't doing that bad. So after having this brush with strong weather we are making our course a little more to the north than before to get farther from the storm tracks.

Now for the storm part(see parental advisory above). By Jan 23 we could see from our grib-file forecast that we were going to be in for some strong wind 35-40 kt from NW shifting to the SW over the next 24-36 hours and remaining strong. At that point we took down the mainsail and securely lashed it to the boom. First note: we will be looking for some new mainsail track slugs in Capetown as our old slugs are starting to wear and tend to jam in the track when taking the sail down with wind from astern. We continued over night with storm jib and scrap of jib in the NW wind to the NE making good speed and trying to make some distance to the north to further ourselves from the stronger wind to the south. By early morning of the 24th we were making 7.5 kts in 40kts and we furled the rest of the jib, secured the sheets and coiled the furling line around the winch (remember this part). With storm jib alone we were making a comfortable 6-6.5 kts on our course. It didn't seem that bad, seas were building but not breaking and we weren't surfing. By mid morning the wind was building to about 50 kts and we surfed our first wave to 11.5 kts. Now we were getting worried, Santa Magdalena is not meant for surfing. At about 50 kts the windvane was starting to have trouble steering and we round up as the boat was blown over in the gusts. At this point I think we had our first knockdown. I don't really know how far over the wave knocked us as we were both on the lee side of the cabin at the time and since everything was well secured not much went flying (including us), but we were well over. I looked outside and things didnt seemed too bad, only part of the dodger was pulled away from the hard top and flapping. Soon after the first wave a second wave hit with even more force and I think we were knocked down again. This one was worse as it blew the entire dodger glass forward, ripping it to shreds. The force of the water on the companionway hatch, (with hatch boards in, doors closed and hatch closed and locked from inside)pushed water through any small cracks and poured several gallons of seawater directly on the nav station. Radios, pactor, GPS, stereo and chart table with computers inside were all awash. This was bad. Lucky the computers were in the chart table at the time and did not get wet and that the Icom 710 is a marine radio and is still working. Now we needed to do something, so I went outside to check the windvane and I saw a wave come by that is huge. We were almost swept onto it as it broke, and at this point I know it is time for the series drogue. The series drogue is our 100 meter line that has attached to it 123 6inch diameter cones, or mini parachutes, in series that when pulled through the water create drag and slow the boat down. In addition to slowing the boat down and preventing us from surfing, the drogue also creates turbulence in the water behind us that inhibits waves from cresting and breaking on the boat. To begin we deployed about half of the drogue. It slowed us down to about 3 kts, lessening the risk of surfing, and we left the storm jib up to keep the boat heading down wind. In hind site half the drogue and the storm jib worked out ok to start with, but the storm jib was destroyed in the process, and a few hours later we decided to let the rest of the series drogue out anyway. Furthermore to deploy only half the drogue was difficult and many of the small cones were caught on the winch or a cleat and damaged before going overboard. From the start we should have deployed the entire drogue and taken down all sail. After we deployed the entire drogue, which is connected to the boat by a bridle that leads through both after chalks and loops over the main winches, one of the legs of the bridle was quickly cut and parted when it chafed on the bottom of our wind generator tower. We were then left hanging on the drogue by the port aft chalk and winch and sitting about 45 degrees to the swell. This was not planned but the effects seemed to be favorable as the drogue and boat together seemed to put out a large protective slick of turbulent water and we were not struck by another wave the rest of the day or night though we could hear them breaking all around. In fact when the drogue was finally deployed and the ripped storm jib taken down the motion of the boat became quite comfortable and we took the advise I have often heard concerning storms and and drogues "drogue out, hatchboards in, drink a little rum, and go to bed." We slept pretty well at that. It continued to blow hard the rest day and most of the night and 12 hours of sleep later we were able to retrieve the drogue in a welcome 15 to 20 kts. After half a morning of cleaning up and re-rigging we were once again underway. Remember the part about the furling line coiled on the winch. Well at some point I took it off the winch and tossed it on deck where it was washed forward, then over the side, and is currently securely wrapped around the propeller. But Im sure there will be a calm sometime in the next 1900 miles and I need a bath anyway.