The first two days heading up from Newfoundland were beautiful sunny days – not much wind but a nice break. The next day I saw the most amazing sunrise ever, but, an incredibly colorful bright sunrise is not a good sign. By 9:30am it was blowing a gale. It was what I call a summer gale which come for breakfast and leave after dinner. In the winter a gale will blows for days and I would not want to be in these waters. The gale was blowing out of the northeast so I had to beat my way into the wind and waves to go north. I don’t think this boat will sail close hauled in more the 35-40kts, I was moving sideways almost as much as I was going forward. I love having 35-40kts of wind behind me – it makes for a fun fast day. But beating into the seas sucks – and everything got wet. I setup my dodger for the first time and it worked well until a wave came crashing over my deck and blew it out. Not long after I was tossed about and body slammed my chart plotter, ripping it off its mount. I took one wave so hard it damaged part of my mounting system for my wind generator and I had to lash the thing down until the wind calmed. The next day blew around 30kts and being that I was still beating my way into the wind and sea things just keep getting more and more wet until I had no where left to sit that was dry. I was a bit miserable.
Jullian from West Marine rigging keep telling me that I need to get as much film footage as possible while on this trip. I have a waterproof HD camera and I have got some good shots. The weather seemed to calm down a bit and I heard Jullains voice in my head “film” so I took my camera outside to mount it. Since no wave had broke over the boat for some time I decided not to put on my foul weather gear (you can see where this is going). As I was mounting the camera, I heard a approaching wave. When I looked I saw it was big wave with a strange pinnacle shape, and headed right at me. I tried to pull myself up the back stay but it hit so hard it wiped my feet out and as I held the backstay I noticed that I was at a right angle to the boat. Needless to say I ended yesterday by getting completely soaked. Next time I’ll put on my foul weather gear.
Today was a great sunny day, so I took advantage of the weather. I fixed “all things broken” and I patched up 5 leaks. My boat was a funny sight as I had laundry hanging from all over and my cushions all over the deck. I managed to dry out my boat and gear and now I’m ready to do it all over again. The fog has rolled back in and I end this day with a glass of screech feeling good about tomorrow. So far so good.
