Whew! It was just supposed to be a short hop from Bequia over to St. Vincent -- 8, maybe 10 nm, tops. I mean, how hard can that be? Well, let me tell ya, it can get pretty bad.

First, Ruth started out motorsailing under a single-reefed main. The sea was big, but rolly. She did a great job and I just let her go to get some time on the helm. I figured when I need her the most to take the helm will be under conditions similar to these, so get the time on.

But then the wind built into the lower 20s and Ruth was done. So I took over and after a short bit we agreed it was time to put out a double-reefed jib. After we successfully deployed the jib and turned the motor off Will started driving. But it became quickly apparent that the sea state was building beyond even Will's experienced capability.

So I jumped to the helm and started steering through the waves. It wasn't too bad at first. Some salt spray would ocassionally fly back into the cockpit or we would ship a wave onto the deck and it would all wash aft along the back and out the stern. About that time I noticed the apparent wind had built into the upper 20s and I was wishing we had a double reef in. But the sea was just too big, so we sheeted off some and traveled down some and put in what I like to call "a poor man's reef".

But then the seas got even worse. The waves got really, really steep. Heck, anyone can take a 15' wave if it is long and round enough. These were square!! We were shipping water aboard with regular intervals by now and I was pretty much in survival mode to keep the boat and rig together. We were doing pretty well on speed -- 6.5k compared to 5k when we were motorsailing -- but the waves were just so tall and steep.

I would try to steer nearly broadside to them to try to keep the bow from totally burying into the next wave. But that is really increases the danger of getting rolled, so I was sort of between a rock and a hard spot. Then 'the perfect wave' hit.

I saw this sucker coming about 20 sec. before she hit the boat. I mean, that is all I am looking at -- the water. And I see about 20' aft of directly to weather two waves start to come together. I fell off hoping I could get enough speed up so that it would be behind us when it broke. But 20,000 lb. of Jeanneau doesn't accelerate like a Hobie and bam! I got hit with a full wall of water just abaft of amidships.

The wave was higher than our toe rail when it broke. When it broke, it came right over the lifeline, right over the deck, and right into the cockpit. The entire area between our bimini and the deck was full with a wall of water. I put my head down and couldn't even see the instruments as they got swallowed up by the wave!!

Fortunately, nothing got broken or torn. The lazy lines holding our lazy bag up failed at the knots (again), so I will have to go aloft (again) to re-tie those. But that is minor. The bimini and all the canvas was fine. The instruments were good. Nothing in the cockpit got damaged. The boat was still sailing!

So I just hunkered down in my now soiled shorts and underwear and kept driving. The sea kept up like that for another 40 min. until we could get in the lee of St. Vincent when it finally started to settle down.

We came over to this idyllic anchorage -- Blue Lagoon. It is completely sheltered by a reef except for a narrow entrance. The only problem was we came at low water and couldn't make it in. So we have anchored outside and may row in to explore.

Things continue to break on the boat, and I keep fixing them. I don't know what is going on with all this breakage, but I don't have a lot of options. After we anchored and went down below we found about 5 gal. of water in our bilge with no idea how it got there. Now Will and Ruth report one of our hatches broken. Add it to the list!!!