Rough Seas Ahead

It is 01:00 and the wind has climbed sharply. We are sitting in a steady 16 knots now, and the seas have grown into 4 to 5 foot rollers. The height is manageable, but the interval is brutal. Every three seconds another one hits, and the rhythm wears you down fast.

I spent the last hour furling the Genoa, setting the Staysail, and putting a single reef in the main. Doing all of that alone in the dark is no small task, but it is done and Hazel is balanced again. Peter would normally be on deck with me, but he is off watch and asleep. I eased our course a touch as well, just enough to settle Hazel’s motion.

Night sailing under full cloud cover is its own kind of disorienting. You cannot see a thing. Safety becomes the only priority. In the photos you will see the lifejacket, the harness, and the tether clipped into a padeye so that if a wave sweeps the deck, it does not sweep me with it. We also rigged Jacklines from stern to bow, kept tight and close to Hazel’s centerline. I have never understood why some sailors run them along the gunnels. If you go overboard, centerline Jacklines keep you on the boat. Gunnel Jacklines only guarantee you get dragged beside it.

As the day wore on, the seas kept building. The wind rose to 32 knots with gusts touching 36. The waves averaged ten feet, with the occasional fifteen foot beast rearing up out of the mess. The short interval makes them punishing, and now the sea has become confused with no clean direction, no rhythm, just chaos.

Both Peter and I are running on fumes. A friend of mine, a Lake Superior sailor, once told me not to worry about Hazel. “Worry about Peter and Paul,” he said. “Hazel will take care of herself.” And he was right. Through all of this big seas, high winds, and relentless motion Hazel has been steady and sure. She is doing her job. Peter and I, on the other hand, are exhausted after thirty six unbroken hours, and the forecast shows another full day of heavy weather ahead.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/9dc351_e6ad2342cae740b49af888a2f1ce721a/360p/mp4/file.mp4

I will attach the chart images. They show exactly what we are facing: gale force winds, high seas warnings, and a system that refuses to ease.

May God watch over Hazel and her crew.