After yesterday’s entry the wind continued to pick up until by midnight it was blowing a good 20 knots, gusting to 25. This continued all night and the swell soon built up to around 2-3 metres, coming from the starboard quarter so the waves roll up from behind, push the stern up so we start surfing down the front, then we slice into the back of the next one so the bow rears up and it all starts again.
The effect is a bit like a mad rollercoaster ghost train with someone chucking buckets of cold water all over the place. The boat rolls, pitches and yaws, constantly accelerating then decelerating again as it rolls over the waves. Meanwhile the wind howls through the rigging like a demented banshee and the wind generator whistles wildly over the top of it all. All this takes place in the pitch black of an overcast Atlantic night with the only light source being the faint green glow of the instruments.
Inside the boat it’s chaos. Water drips from every possible opening, loose objects go careering around randomly, and everything ends up rolling around on the floor, including me. It’s really hard to move around – someone once equated being in a yacht in a storm to the inside of a washing machine, and it’s not far from the truth.
It’s been a tiring night as it’s impossible to sleep in these conditions, at least until I collapse from exhaustion. No bed is stable so I move from cabin to cabin trying to find the best place to rest. Right in the bow is great fun as you feel it rise right up over the crest of a wave, then there’s a brief moment of weightlessness before you crash down into the next and hear the water gurgle and rush past just inches away. Meanwhile the back of the boat rolls and yaws from side to side so I get thrown around all over the big double bunk.
The noise is also incredible with a wild cacophany of bangs, rattles, clanks and scrapes, plus the roar of the water slicing past and the howl of the wind. My mind starts to play tricks and I could have sworn as I lay there I heard footsteps on deck and muted voices, then the sound of people in the cabin and someone saying “There he is”. Of course there was nobody there, but in the middle of the night it can be a bit weird.
However I’m not complaining as we’ve made astonishingly good progress, covering over 200 miles in the 23 hours to 8am (I crossed a timezone yesterday, hence the missing hour in the log). We’re sailing at an average speed of 7.5 knots, with over 8 during one 2-hour period when we covered 16.1 miles. We regularly hit 9 knots, with the most so far being 9.92. I wonder if we’ll make double figures? Hope so!
Needless to say this is great news and puts me well on my easterly course towards France. I’m wondering now whether there’s a chance we might make it by the end of August which is 3 weeks away. 3000 miles in 20 days is just possible if we can do an average of 150 miles per day, but it would be hard going if it’s like this all the way.
Anyway, it’s not esay typing in these conditions so I’ll get back to the serious business of eating, resting, and just hanging on and enjoying the ride!