Hair raising experiences...

It started out as one pleasant, very calm evening, where after dinner and a game of chess, I was standing watch from 12 till 3am. The sea was in a condition 5 (on a scale of 1 to 12, 12 being the worst-Hurricane) and the winds were hitting about 17-20 knots. I had had a couple of sessions at the helm (the steering wheel- for the non sailors), so I was feeling more confident and doing it solo. The gennaker (smaller sail than a spinnaker) was out so you have to be quite wary and keep on your toes. The pressure dropped to about 1011Bar and the wind started to pick-up along with the sea, so the nerves were being pushed to their limit. I was doing the usual 360 degree look out keeping an eye out for squawls (if you don't know what these are watch Kevin Kostner in "white Squawl", brilliant. Its where a strong gust of wind that picks some spray up of the ocean and this increases the force of the wind.), but you have to keep look out while manning the helm so its quite tough. Basically it came out of the north east, blind spot, I didn't see it as the moon disappeared behind the clouds at this point. The squawl took the wind speed quickly up to 30 knots. The power is one thing but the angle at which it hits,is the real problem. It collapsed the sail in a flash and then re-opened her with such a force it put a small tear in her, about 10 cms long. However at those wind speeds the tear suddenly transforms one sail into two and before I knew what had happened, the sails and lines were flapping out of control on our bows. Yay. So I have to bang on the skippers cabin and then run up to the front of the boat (bow) and attempt to get these under control. Little bit daunting with the knowledge that if you fall over the 2 foot flimsy life rails you probably going to visit Neptune, as the odds of finding you again are rather slim in those seas.