AZ(AB) 91 - Another note-worthy log entry

Another note-worthy log entry was that the fresh milk, kept only in the "cold box" had finally gone off after 4 days, indicating just how cold it had been! But that morning a more serious development took place, which was to make our voyage a lot less enjoyable - with an electronic scream our autopilot decided to die on us, and despite trying to mend the beast, nothing could persuade it to come back to life. It looked like a hand steer 24 hours a day for the rest of the racel As if to raise our spirits a group of dolphins came to play perhaps attracted by the autopilot's squeak for help. During the rest of the day the wind continued to increase, backing round to "South South East" and built to a good Force 6, the seas were also developing at an steady rate. With night and the storm approaching, John and I were keen to rig up some form of mechanical self steering to give us a little sleep, or at least a break from helming. After a few abortive ideas, we found a piece of bungi cord and a length of braided rope worked passably, allowing time to go below for a brew-up. Having gained an extra helmsperson we continued to ready the boat for what threatened to be quite an extended blow. The wind continued to increase and then unexpectedly started to abate, "Was that it?" John said, "so much for the forecast and those weather faxes - if we had some seaweed it would be more accurate!" However we both could not really believe that we had escaped that easily, or that the depression had come and gone without a significant wind shift.

After a brief respite of a few hours the seas became confused, the wind started howling through the rigging and the barometer plummeted like a stone, 11 millibars in just 5 hours. This is how I started our story, and the memory of how we were thrown around for the next 36 hours, as if our 4 tonne boat was but a matchstick, is still vivid in my mind. We had 24 hours of this hell - the nerve racking climb up the face of towering 35 foot high waves, each with a different hissing curling top waiting to cover us with spume - then the exhilarating acceleration as we shot down the back side of the wave into a dark hole and a brief respite before being elevated upwards again for another soaking!.Although the wind still continued to blow, it was showing signs of changing direction making the seas very confused, there seemed little doubt that we were half way through the blow. It was now 0200 on our 7th day at sea and sitting in the cockpit on a dark night wondering when it would end, with wet shirt, pants, socks and wellies full of water fibrositis pains shooting down my back, I couldn't help thinking that maybe this isn't the side of yachting you see in the brochures for fun sailing holidays.