Day 2 – Sunday 5 January 2014.

By Grant Chapman.

The wind was still north westerly but it suited us as we still needed to get further west from the storm and when it veered to the west we resisted the temptation to tack and go north with the swell which would have been more comfortable for us all. There were plenty of Gannets and Sooty Petrels soaring over the wave tops as well as a few Storm Petrels in the troughs of the waves but they all started to disappear in the early afternoon. As the day wore on the wind strengthened into the evening when it started gusting to over 45 knots and the sea was smashing into our port bow with mountainous waves up to 5m high. Those that hadn’t succumbed to sea sickness by now did so except for Peter who stoically seemed immune but later admitted to also having been affected by the rough sea. We lost count of how many times a wave broke over the cockpit, drenching us thoroughly and lifted Grant clean off the bench while he was helming, only to then have a later wave pour down into the aft cabin while the hatch was open, soaking all his bedding. We were having to sail with no main sail and only a 3rd of the genoa out in the gale-force conditions and considered ourselves fortunate to have the autohelm steering for us so that we could get some shelter from the waves by huddling under the spray hood. However it wasn’t long before a rogue wave knocked the bow severely on the port side and rendered the autohelm useless by smashing the steering arm plate. Although the lack of an autohelm was not critical as we had enough competent helmsmen to cope with steering the boat manually in shifts and considered that we were through the worst of the weather, the steering was very loose and our concern was that it wouldn’t last the trip, we resolved to deal with it in the morning given a calmer sea state and make a decision on our continuation in the race. The steering plate would definitely need to be repaired in Rio for the trip back though. It was another very wet and miserable night with very little sleep for all of the crew and an especially tough night for those at the helm who had to steer the boat through some atrocious weather that even their foulies wasn’t keeping out. The boat coped remarkably well and rode out the storm with everybody safe on board. Virgil proved invaluable as our on-board medic tending to everyone’s various illnesses and preparing a delicious meal for us in between tending to the sickly with his very caring bedside manner. At one stage the floor boards on the sole of the saloon were floating around with so much water being taken on board. Fortunately the bilge pumps managed to pump it all out. Our average speed during the storm was only 3 to 4 knots.