Big winds, big ships and a wet kite...

After watching the wind stay a steady 17 kts for few hours and with a forecast dying breeze I once again hoisted the Kite (spinnaker), once it was up George took control and went down below I wrote my last blog. Not long after I was shocked to see the windspeeds reading 22kts again, thats about the top limit for George. I decided to once again wrap myself up and get up on deck. As I opened the hatch to get out it was noticeable that the waves had picked up, all i could see was white water everywhere but the kite was holding well so no cause for alarm. I would simply have take the autopilot (George) out and drive again until it calmed down a little. I was keen to make the most of the strong(ish) winds we had be seeing.

If it was strong(ish) winds I wanted then thats certainly what I got. As the wind picked up the sea's ferocity increased 5 fold. It went from having a great albeit playful, fairly close to the edge sail to being completely absurdly over the edge and way beyond in just a few minutes. I was dropping into waves that  had no idea how large they were or whether I was about to plow into the wave in front and stop or keep accelerating into tomorrow. The winds were having one final blow, if I could hold it for a little longer I was convinced they would drop. The clouds were changing and the cloud cover increasing signalling a change in winds coming. As the winds passed 27kts I felt trapped, The foredeck (front) of the boat didnt look a very appealing place to be and thats where i needed to be if I was going to drop the kite. There was very little if no natural light, the moon was now firmly behind blanket cloud. My gut was telling me that it was a freak gust and it would calm down but I knew if it kept rising I would be getting towards the realms of dangerous! I got to the foredeck firmly clipped on and looking back have never seen so much spray hurling up from both sides of the boat! The kite came down with no fuss but the feeling of loneliness in the few moments before were huge- not that I wanted someone to come and help, because I didnt. It was more that I wanted someone to whoop and cheer and maybe a high five with me when I finally tamed the beast! What a ride!

There have been a few moments before in my life when I have ended up in a situation that only I could get myself out of. One of them was in a light aircraft flying in cloud near Gatwick airport when I lost all my instruments on board, that was the most scary. The few moments before I managed to the kite down last night was probably the second!

After the excitement and adrenalin had worn off I was well and truly humbled. I thought I had been making the right calls so far this voyage, the balance between racing and safety has always been top of my agenda and it would appear I maybe made the wrong call last night!

Having got back down below and dried off I saw the first signs of an issue with another ship, I have a collision avoidance system onboard (AIS) and it was showing a much faster container ship approaching me from dead astern, the calculated separation between us would have been 0.2 miles, not really enough! A 3am I had visions of the crew not being fully alert so I made a radio call and asked for a little more room! The kind man obliged and passed 1.6 miles away on my left. At that range they look quite seriously large!

 

After some rest and a few Zzzz's first light came and it was high time to get back into the race and re-hoist the Kite. My previous instincts were right, the wind dropped no sooner as the kite was down and had been sitting steady at 14 kts since. Now very well practiced in spinnaker hoists and drops it was up in a jiffy and flying well. That was until the cleat holding the halyard (the rope holding it up) gave way and the whole thing went under the bow! 85 square meters of spinnaker acting as a large sea anchor! With a bit of a faff I managed to get it back onboard and once again up and flying. I think thats enough excitement for one day!