The Calm before the Storm
11 September 2024 | The Coral Sea off the Sunshine Coast
Jenny Gaskell | Stormy night
Is there always a calm before a storm? Well yes, but there can also be some Hellter Skelter. We are 13 hours in, not counting the 5 hours of sailing prep before leaving Southport, so a bit of fatigue was setting in.
1AM Wednesday (always in the dark) We weren’t keeping tabs on our breaks, but I noticed our tag teaming for watch seemed to come around fast. Time to put the kettle on and make some supper! I do a hand over to He Who Hums and point out the green dot on the radar screen, a yacht 2NM ahead was the only traffic around before heading to the galley.
The midnight snack was done without any fuss, no holding on or being tossed about the galley. I heard He Who Hums scurry across the top decks to shut the hatch. Yep, he did mention something about rain clouds looming. A bit smug with the ease in which I returned with the tray of our “pick me up” supper not spilling a drop.
Clearly, this is where I missed identifying the calm before this storm.
Back at the helm, I hear a few big splotches of rain begin. Our supper had barely been touched when I first saw the horizon, our tea and my centre of gravity instantaneously take a dive to the left. The noise, wind, speed and the cloud mass on the radar all escalated rapidly. Condesa had responded! To cut back the intensity we needed to let out the sails, as it was too late now and too dark to drop any of the 4 overpowered sails. The horse had bolted so to speak.
Oh, about that yacht! Where did he go? The other question is - Did he drop sails and pace? If so, he could actually be closer to us than before? We will never know as the storm was massive and clouds have now devoured what was left of the horizon too. Absolutely nothing and no one to see here, just sheets of pelting rain.
Over the following two hours the cockpit canopy was peppered hard, adding unavoidable drips to our once warm, dry enclosed area.
The silver lining was the intense storm travelled the same path and eventually cleared a patch of sky directly overhead. So we watched that gap in the clouds on the instruments, instead of the lil “yacht that was”. I was hoping the clouds wouldn’t build into a whirl wind, trapping us in the eye. It had me remembering the super cells and what they were capable of, not to mention the recent waterspout on the news. The dark can do that to your mind.
2.45 AM
Finally the coast was clear! The radar revealing the one and only green dot again. Yes the next question had been answered, it was the “lost yacht”, moving ahead of us at the same pace, thankfully. We don’t want to hit whales or other vessels in the dark.
We were back to normalcy, sailing a steady 7 knts after peaking a furious 10knts with 25 knts wind speed.
3.30AM
Someone (and you can guess who) once said “you’re not sailing if you don’t have a wet bum!”
We change into dry clothes and resumed our resting positions.
It was time for another cuppa, a soothing camomile this time. Safe and sound again with just 3 hours until sunrise. 🙌🏻
Footnote - if you were to ask Condesa, she would say it was easy peazy! She spent her years in windy San Fransisco bay and it was nothing for all 43 ton of her her to be healed over gunwales in the water every race meet. Just sayin!