We turned in around 21:30 in light South Easterly winds of 10-15 kts on a direct course for Ponta Delgada on São Miguel in the Azores.
The high wind speed alarms started going off at 22:45 and we spent all night getting up every 15 – 60 minutes or so as the wind and seas built in force. Torrential rain and lightning made for exciting conditions as the wind built to gusts of 47 kts. We ended up on a double reefed main and just the reefed staysail and at 04:30 am the conditions finally started to relent. In the night the wind backed around to come from the North and we were forced to tack, on a heading for South Africa.
Even after the winds became more moderate, the sea state remained very rough. Since not much sleep was had by the crew, we tried to sleep in until about 08:00 am, after which we had a breakfast of coffee/tea, fresh pineapple, yogurt and granola.
Now, at 11:00, we are making a course of 15 degrees on Easterly winds, despite the bearing for the Azores being 58 degrees. We are hoping the wind will veer around to a he South-East, but the sun is shining and we have carried a few small repairs on deck (re-joining the split Hydrovane control line, whipping the Dynema low friction loop on a larger low friction ring for the new, larger Genoa furling line we installed yesterday).
Today is day 6 of the passage and we have 1,960 nautical miles to go to Ponta Delgada!
Wow ! To quote W.C. Fields (in the 1933 movie “The Fatal Glass of Beer”):
“It ain’t a fit night out for man nor beast” !
Reminds of a night sail I had on a 47 foot catamaran from St. Kitts back to Guadeloupe in similar conditions back in 1998. Mono hulls are much better suited to rearing up at 40 degrees in high sees and smashing back down than are cats with two pontoons connected by beams !