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Squall! Today started calm. When I took my night watch at 3am the wind was blowing less then 7 knots. This morning however the wind started to pick up and by this afternoon we where getting 33 knot winds, 12 foot swells that were 3 seconds apart. At first when the wind started picking up and was gusting at 20 knots with huge waves we thought it was really fun. We reefed the main sail (pulled it down 10 feet) harnessed up and when onto the front trampoline to get an extremely rocky ride.  As the boat would ramp up a huge wave and drop down another we would jump so the boat falling faster then us would pull us down by our harness giving us a solid  3 or 4 seconds of hang time with us floating in the air.  Unfortunately as the waves started crashing higher over us and the wind started whipping past us at 24 knots, we had to come in.

As the wind started picking up and eventually started ripping over our boat at 33 knots things got a little insane, let me give you a scene from today: “Pull down the main again” Dad  hollered! “Nooo we have done that like 7 times today already” Dailin moaned, looking like he was about to hurl. “SMASH” the boat lurched to the side and dropped 15 feet nose diving and sending a huge wave of ocean water flying over us and soaking everything and everyone out side. “Nooo” bellowed Dailin who had just put the hand washed laundry out to dry before it got soaked again by this wave.

Twenty seconds later Orin opened the door to outside nearly in tears after coming from reading Harry Potter in his room, “My mattress is soaked” he whimpered. “someone left my hatch open and that wave soaked it all the way though”.  Orin said bursting into tears.

Just then a huge wave rocked the boat catching us broad side and knocking the auto pilot off course. With the boat off course the jib sail began flapping madly whipping the ropes attached to it around with deadly speed.  “PULL DOWN THAT JIB!” Dad yelled again. “Harnesses on NOW!”. CRASH, one more wave was all it took to soak everyone with water being whipped into our eyes at 30 knots. “Get that jib down, get it down” Dad chanted frantically as the jib whipped around smashing into the shrouds. As fast as we could we all started winching in the jib salt water making my eyes smarten. It was at that moment I realized with horror a rip the size of a apple had appeared in the top of the sail. Pretty much every sailors nightmare, a the fast wind normally causes the sail rip to get bigger and bigger.

With the Jib rolled in Alyssa, Dailin and I clipped our harnesses onto the life line and slid our way to the mast. Every wave threatening to knock us over board into it’s massive swells as we where jostled up and down.

Once we where in position under the sail dad kicked the engines into full throttle long since forgetting about conserving fuel in favor of saving the sails. The moment we where in irons we became a well oiled machine (we had done this like 8 times that day because the wind kept picking up and dropping down) and tore the sail down the mast with the help of the gusting wind. Getting the sail down three quarters of the way we decided to reef there. As we stumbled back into the cockpit with dark clouds shooting rainwater into our faces and the waves flinging us side to side I glanced at the navigation station and realized we where now going 1.5 knots… backwards.

Since our Auto pilot does not work too well backward, especially not in this weather, we had to manually fight the sea currents by hand. With Dad struggling at the helm (not because it was hard but because we where spinning in circles) I decided to go inside since I had heard some nasty pops and torn something in my arm while pulling the sail down.  As  I opened the door to my cabin the smell of mold made we want to gag (even with just a day of all the windows and hatches closed things start to smell awful) so I was forced to come back to the main cabin. And that’s when I started praying like never before in my life.

Jaeden

At 01/05/2013 4:46 AM (utc) our position was 08°12.00’N 125°59.00’W