A hideous night sail

 Tuesday evening the weather turned against us.



We are heading straight towards that dirty piece of orange ...





The sky filled with ominous black clouds, rain and wind squalls back to back.  We experienced multiple booming thunderstorms and lightning strikes that lit up the whole night sky. It was a rough night with squally gusts of wind reaching speeds of over 50 knots at times.  The bimini took a real hiding in the severe winds and the odd rogue wave came over the port stern quarter and spilled into the cockpit giving it a good flush out.  We have almost zero visibility.  The radar is switched off as it continually beeps due to the severity of the rain.  We are keeping a constant lookout.

The report we read today on Stuff is there were over 2000 lightning strikes in the Taranaki area overnight.  We were in the middle of this!

Everywhere on deck is soaking wet, the seas have taken on a dark, oily look which is never a good sign and we have big rolling following seas.  Now and again, during a squall, all you can see is the white foam off the waves being whipped about by the winds.

The crew have had a restless and uncomfortable time in their bunks.  The two forward cabins are directly under the mast and rigging and the noise of the boat and gear straining under load is quite disturbing.  The most comfortable place on board currently is actually sitting/sleeping on the cabin sole.

About 4.30am we noticed the dinghy on deck had shifted and tipped up a little on its side.  Even though the dinghy is well tied on with 2 wire strops plus a strap, with the constant jerking/pounding motion it has come off its placement points and is now to one side of the deck.  Waiting till daylight and calmer seas to set it right.

We are all doing well, no sea sickness, couple of bruises.  This is real North Atlantic sailing! Currently just passing the Maui oil rigs and we will soon be setting a course straight towards Queen Charlotte Sounds.  We are sailing in between two fronts so we are going all out to be in a safe anchorage before the southerly comes through later tomorrow.




It's a rough ride today!









Wearing all the safety gear!










Maui off the Taranaki coast









Exploration ships










A perfect storm!






Comments

  1. Unknown31 March 2021 at 18:04

    So glad to hear you are now in sight of land and safety. I hope you are now over the worse

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown1 April 2021 at 09:28

    Wow wow wow. Tense reading so must have been very tense experiencing! Well done guys. You are doing an amazing job.
    Looking forward to hearing the next installment x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lisa1 April 2021 at 10:28

    Sooooo good you’ve made it to the Sounds 🥰. Incredible how the sea can be so wild in such a quick time!!! Enjoy your anchorage and rest be fore you head down the east coast ♥️

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark D2 April 2021 at 15:29

    Sounds like you had the same conditions we experienced off Taranaki.... wish we had your iron constitutions tho’...

    ReplyDelete

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