Now That Was An Interesting Night, so far
Janet will be updating this after the sun rises tomorrow. The evening started with a drenching rainstorm where we took free showers. Lots of rain but not much wind. After things dried up we enjoyed tortellini's in the cockpit with red wine. Janet and I were cleaning up the dinner dishes and Paul was standing watch and BAM! Knock down! Out of nowhere, instantly, we had 34Kts of wind on the port side with all sail set. Tango was over on her side fighting to come up. Paul's reaction was to try and turn down wind, as I've been teaching him. However this was the exception and we quickly got Tango upright by letting her turn into the wind as I took over the helm. WIth Paul and Janet below battening down the hatches I stuck the nose into the screaming wind maintaining steerage way with 4-5 knots of forward speed. Tango and I fought this thunder-storm like thing figuring it would blow out in 45 minutes, like most convection storms. Nope. Not tonight. After about an hour and 15 min the winds started to let up and Janet and Paul furled up the Genoa I waited for a right feeling time and turned Tango downwind. Off we zoomed under the staysail set about 80% and the main in it's first reef. 9.5 kts in a fairly calm sea (going down wind). With time the winds decreased to high teens and low twenty's and we were aimed right at the Marquesas. We ate the mileage up for the first time in days. Paul went to bed and Janet stayed up with me on the first 2-man watch of the night. Janet and I zoomed easily downwind. At 0200 Paul got up to relieve Janet... and the thunderstorms started in again. So far, only rain and no wind, as in calm again! Right now Paul is trying to keep the whopping 7 kt wind on the beam. Janet will send her version of this tomorrow.
Tango and her crew did really well in a tough situation. This is why we have Tango. She is a blue water boat. \
PS - not much sleep for John so forgive the grammar etc...
+++++++++++++Janet's long over due view of the evening Tango tipped pretty far over. From Janet:
Wed, April 10
What a day for Tango and crew. Probably the scariest day of my life. The day itself started out fairly normal. Rolling seas and a rain shower in the afternoon, enough rain to be able to take a quick soapy shower on deck. Dinner time was fairly calm, we ate in the cockpit as we did all of our meals. John and I were down below cleaning up dinner dishes when all the sudden Tango was heeling so far over to the starboard side that you could see only waves through the windows. John hollered for Paul to head into the wind and he flew up the stairs to the cockpit and took the helm. Paul came down below quickly and the windspeed I saw on the gauges at the navigation station was 35 knots. This came up so fast we were all totally unprepared. I was so afraid that boat would roll over because we had all sails out, the entire boat was shuddering in the strong winds and seemed to leap over the waves. I cried, prayed, prayed and cried. I had a counter full of clean dishes, sharp knives, and my instant pot pressure cooker that I was trying to keep from flying through the cabin and hurting someone or something. Most of that went into the sink and the pressure cooker onto the floor while holding onto the counter to keep from falling. We did manage to get the hatches closed most of the way but after a huge spray of water came into the salon, we realized that the main hatch was not quite down all the way. The winds stayed strong for more than an hour. The entire time I was afraid, afraid the boat would be damaged, afraid the sails would tear, afraid someone one would get hurt, afraid John would tire at the helm. But amazingly, none of that happened. John held firmly to Tango, keeping her under control, the boat stayed in one piece, the sails survived and no one was hurt. Before dark, Paul and I were able to come into the cockpit and under careful control, got the genoa totally furled up and put away and pulled in the staysail to a safe position. I was truly spooked by the whole event and was insecure about staying at the helm by myself during a storm, feeling unsure about what to do in the event of unexpected strong winds. John ended up standing double watches several stormy nights in a row and I know he was close to exhaustion. What would we have done in that situation if John hadn’t had ship handling experience and training to best ensure the safety of the crew and the boat? What would I do if John got hurt and I needed to take command? I realized that night how unprepared I was for this passage. There will be bigger storms to get through and other unexpected occurrences. I hope that I will gain confidence and knowledge as we continue our journey.
What did I do right?
++Got galley projectiles into the sink or onto the floor where they would not cause any harm
++Put on non-skid shoes in case we needed to go on deck
++Reviewed where emergency equipment was stowed in case we needed it
++I understand now the concept of “stow as you go” with kitchen equipment, especially knives. Clean them and put them away before moving on to anything else.
What did I do wrong?
--After getting things safely stowed in the galley, putting on a life jacket, even though we were inside the cabin.
--Probably, my panic was adding to Paul’s stress level but he was truly a gentleman and has not said that to me. (not yet anyway)
So, fast forward to today, 23May2019. We are on Land vacation with our best buddies. We have sailed 6000+ miles and more than 1/3 of the way across the Pacific. We have had one other adventure that you'll see when we catch up our entries for Rangiroa.
:) John
Tango and her crew did really well in a tough situation. This is why we have Tango. She is a blue water boat. \
PS - not much sleep for John so forgive the grammar etc...
+++++++++++++Janet's long over due view of the evening Tango tipped pretty far over. From Janet:
Wed, April 10
What a day for Tango and crew. Probably the scariest day of my life. The day itself started out fairly normal. Rolling seas and a rain shower in the afternoon, enough rain to be able to take a quick soapy shower on deck. Dinner time was fairly calm, we ate in the cockpit as we did all of our meals. John and I were down below cleaning up dinner dishes when all the sudden Tango was heeling so far over to the starboard side that you could see only waves through the windows. John hollered for Paul to head into the wind and he flew up the stairs to the cockpit and took the helm. Paul came down below quickly and the windspeed I saw on the gauges at the navigation station was 35 knots. This came up so fast we were all totally unprepared. I was so afraid that boat would roll over because we had all sails out, the entire boat was shuddering in the strong winds and seemed to leap over the waves. I cried, prayed, prayed and cried. I had a counter full of clean dishes, sharp knives, and my instant pot pressure cooker that I was trying to keep from flying through the cabin and hurting someone or something. Most of that went into the sink and the pressure cooker onto the floor while holding onto the counter to keep from falling. We did manage to get the hatches closed most of the way but after a huge spray of water came into the salon, we realized that the main hatch was not quite down all the way. The winds stayed strong for more than an hour. The entire time I was afraid, afraid the boat would be damaged, afraid the sails would tear, afraid someone one would get hurt, afraid John would tire at the helm. But amazingly, none of that happened. John held firmly to Tango, keeping her under control, the boat stayed in one piece, the sails survived and no one was hurt. Before dark, Paul and I were able to come into the cockpit and under careful control, got the genoa totally furled up and put away and pulled in the staysail to a safe position. I was truly spooked by the whole event and was insecure about staying at the helm by myself during a storm, feeling unsure about what to do in the event of unexpected strong winds. John ended up standing double watches several stormy nights in a row and I know he was close to exhaustion. What would we have done in that situation if John hadn’t had ship handling experience and training to best ensure the safety of the crew and the boat? What would I do if John got hurt and I needed to take command? I realized that night how unprepared I was for this passage. There will be bigger storms to get through and other unexpected occurrences. I hope that I will gain confidence and knowledge as we continue our journey.
What did I do right?
++Got galley projectiles into the sink or onto the floor where they would not cause any harm
++Put on non-skid shoes in case we needed to go on deck
++Reviewed where emergency equipment was stowed in case we needed it
++I understand now the concept of “stow as you go” with kitchen equipment, especially knives. Clean them and put them away before moving on to anything else.
What did I do wrong?
--After getting things safely stowed in the galley, putting on a life jacket, even though we were inside the cabin.
--Probably, my panic was adding to Paul’s stress level but he was truly a gentleman and has not said that to me. (not yet anyway)
So, fast forward to today, 23May2019. We are on Land vacation with our best buddies. We have sailed 6000+ miles and more than 1/3 of the way across the Pacific. We have had one other adventure that you'll see when we catch up our entries for Rangiroa.
:) John
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