In the Gulf

April 12, 2009
My shift ends at 2:00 AM. Before he went to bed, Mark told me that if the wind moves to the east to let out the jib. It began moving east about 1:00 AM and I started to let out the jib but noticed that a preventer line was laying across the jib sheet. (That means that a rope used to stop the main sail from slamming to the other side of the boat was laying across another rope which is used to control the sail on the front). I could easily have climbed out on the bow but it was the middle of the night and I was alone on the boat since Linda and Mark were sleeping. I didn’t go up there. The rule is that you never leave the cockpit without someone else being out in the cockpit with you. If you fell over, at night, alone on top, you would get to watch the boat sail off without you because no one would know until shift change. So, I didn’t go up. About 2:00 AM the winds began to pick up. Mark came up for his shift.
We got the lines fixed. The winds were picking up. I went to bed. A little later I got up and Mark said, "Good. I need to do something." The winds were about 20 knots. The seas were probably about 5 feet. Mark had reefed the mainsail earlier but he wanted to put a second reef in. He said he was going to heave to.
Mark had me sheet in the jib and the mainsail. Then, he backwinded the jib. That means that he turned the boat without moving the jib to the other side. The wind then blew on the wrong side of the jib forcing it back against the boat. Then, he turned the wheel hard to port and locked it in place. That created the effect of the jib wanting to push the bow to the right while the rudder is pushing the bow to the left. As a result, the boat just stops.
Here we are, in the middle of the Gulf, in 20 knot winds and at least 5 foot seas, and Mark had completely stopped the boat. It was so weird to see that boat stop in those winds and seas. Anyway, Mark then climbed to the mast and put a second reef in the main, thus reducing its size to about half the original size. Then, he climbed back in, turned the boat so the wind hit the jib correctly, and the boat took off like a....okay, not a rocket, it was only doing about 7.5 to 8 knots but that is really, really fast in a sailboat. In fact, the only reason we were going that fast was because the wind and waves were going in basically the same direction we were.
Linda was worried. She had been asleep in the front berth and all the noise woke her. I went down to go back to bed and that was when she told me she was scared. I said, "this boat is really sailing well and Mark really knows how to sail in this weather. It’s rough but safe." I climbed in bed and she was asleep within about ten minutes.
Sleeping in that front berth was interesting to say the least. First, the boat was really leaning to the left side. That’s my side of the bed. My side is against the wall. So, Linda would roll over and sort of compress me against the wall. There was no way to avoid this because the bed was leaning so far. We also bounced a little. This berth is not in the nose of the boat but just in front of the mast, so it bounces every time we hit a wave. So, Linda and I bounced and fell into the left wall all night. I couldn’t sleep on my side, I had to sleep on my back or stomach. If I rolled on my side, I could not stay balanced because of the bouncing. But, it wasn’t bad, really, we just had to adjust. We slept through the night. In fact, we slept so well I slept past the watch change.
We sailed in that all the way to Pensacola. Since my chart card did not work, we used Mark’s Garmin gps that he uses in his car. It showed the channel and kept us on course.
The night had been rough but not uncomfortable or unsafe. Even Linda felt safe. She told me later though that she doesn’t want to go back out in that type weather. I tried unsuccessfully to explain that those winds just happen and they make fine sailing.
Our sails were up all the way into the bay and then we motored to our dock. We’re tired, we need a shower, and we need to go to bed and get some rest. Good night.
Mark taught us far more about sailing than we expected, including how to cook at sea. He fed us well to boot. His company is Well Found Yachts with a website of www.wellfoundyachts.com. If you ever need a captain, he’s the man.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.