Over night the visibility deteriorates and it's necessary to check the radar every 15 minutes for ice bergs. I'm taken completely by surprise when it starts raining at 0445. I'd almost forgotten that such a phenomenon existed. It had hardly rained at all since leaving St Pierre to join Gary in Halifax back in early June! I zipped on the additional canvas screen with its perspex door over the rear of the spray hood in order to keep the rain from blowing in the companionway.
After the Watch handover George went off for his usual early morning recovery sleap. We decided to forgo a cooked breakfast/brunch today because we had plenty of fruit that needed using up before it went off, so it would be Grenola, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. That being so I have mine with coffee in the cockpit in the sunshine in a balmy 15°C! I keep most of my togs on. George has his a couple of hours later. The sailing is pleasant and we make good progress at around 5-6 knots.
At 1600 the forecasted strengthening wind arrives we put a second reef in the main and take a couple of rolls in the genoa. At 1800 the wind increases further and we put the third reef in the mainsail.
At 2045, as we close on the centre of the depression the wind as expected veers significantly to the north and increases again. As planned, we heave to to wait out the coming 8 or so hours of strong north winds. Things start to go pear shaped. I haven't performed this manouvre in strong winds for some considerabke time and faul to think it through thoroughly. I leave far too much genoa out and don't sheet it in enough and so once round on the starboard tack even though the genoa is backed we are effectively still sailing rather than hove to, we realize we need to get more genoa.
It's a real struggle to do that in the strong winds and it feels like something is jamming the reefing line. We start the engine in order to head up into the wind and release the pressure on the genoa. At this point I realise that in order to prevent the genoa sheets from chafing on the upper shrouds we also need to change their lead so that they come inside rather than outside the shrouds. In the process of doing that we lose the windward sheet and have a violently flogging genoa. Fortunately the jam in the furling line releases itself and we are able to furl up the genoa. Unfortunately, to compound matters I had left the portside pole out with the sheet running through the end and so we couldn't even sheet it in properly. The flogging sheets immediately wrap themselves in knots around the edge of the pole.
George goes up on the bucking foredeck amidst the chaos to try and sort things out.
For what seems like an enternity he is up there. First he has to lower the pole and bring the end with the jumbo sized knot of sheets around its end to the deck. Then he releases the end of the haliyard and secures it to the mast base. Then he tackles the knot. He has to return to the cockpit for the marlin spike because the knot is so tight. I'm at the helm keeping the boat in a hove to position under power. In the dark and the chaos George finds it difficult to distinguish one piece of rope from another (most are the same colour because I saved money by buying a long length of rope that I then cut into pieces for the various functions - e.g. sheets, guys, preventers. Eventually George manages to undo the knot but in the process pulls the port preventer through its blocks thinking it was the sheet. He leaves it tied to the rail. We are now able to run the sheets inside the shrouds and heave to on the starboard tack
George returns back to the cockpit absolutely knackered. By now we both realise we have a full gale on our hands - the wind is howling and the seas are pretty big with breaking crests (I don't have a wind speed indicator).
It's late afternoon by now and we return below and eat some off the curry left over from the previous night. Whilst eating we realise that we've hove to on the wrong tack and are as a result drifting westward, almost back the way we had come.
We therefore tog up again and with the help of the engine, push the nose through the wind, reduce the size of the genoa further and heave to on the port tack rather than the starboard on which we had mistakenly started out. The engine falters during this manoeuvre (it had been reluctant to start a few times recently).
We are now drifting slowly east at under a knot rather than as previously, almost semi sailing westwards at 2 knots!
George is shattered after his exertions on the foredeck and so he goes to bed on the starboard bunk in the saloon - the focastle is too bumpy to sleep in - and I take the Watch. It's about 2000. Given we are now only drifting the likelihood of bumping into an ice berg is greatly reduced and so I just check the radar once an hour. I start off the Watch in the cockpit under the now enclosed sprayhood but it's very cold and even fully togged and with a blanket around me after a few hours I have to come below and return to my bunk - the pilot berth on the port side of the saloon.
I fail to record our midnight position and so am not able to give distance run and to go.
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