I am not doing the mental math. That is where the water was. Everywhere.
I saw sunlight outside, but was too busy napping. Once I woke up, the clouds were coming in. Determined to catch the last few rays after our fun with the pressure systems, I rolled myself outside and laid back down. Within 30 seconds it was drizzling. By the time I sat up and was debating on running for the hatch, the winds had jumped from 14 to 23kts. We had the full main up and the full jib out. (i.e. Not a pleasant place to be.) I jumped to the jib winch, and started depowering it while asking my Love to toss me my pants (foul weather gear, already in my blue ninja suit). I gave up after three wraps on the furler. Old jibs and some small ones drop. Most larger moderns ones (the sail at the very front) roll up around themselves: furling. By furling the jib, you decrease the surface area = less power = slower speed, but less keel at high wind speeds. Normally four wraps is good in 20-28kts, with the main double reefed. (Where the jib furls, the main drops down part way and ties to itself to decrease area. There are two different heights where this can be done.) Again, no reefs. Oh, and the swells decided to shift to the beam, again.
My better half comes out, we start the engine, turn into the wind and bring in the jib. I told him I had started packaging the jib nicely for shipping. (It had rolled so tight that, while I had three wraps on, I really don't think we had lost any sail area.) UPS would have been proud. The boat was not. As the weather started declining, I decided we might as well have been swimming. Within an hour we decided to give the newbies the night off. It was going to be bad, and they did not have the gear for the weather. The things we do to get some quality time alone together out here. :)
Once we had the jib in and the main double reefed, we settled into 7-8kts vaulting over ridiculous swells. This is what we live for. This is sailing. Yes, perhaps we are nuts. But, we are nuts together. Poseidon and Laralei are chasing each other through the companionway. G-ma is yelling at them to crawl. I am more than slightly amused when I return inside. My other half stays outside to watch while I make dinner. Chili with rice. After feeding everyone and cleaning up, I head back out to join him on watch for the night. We plan on taking turns dozing. We are still doing 8-9kts on a double reefed main alone. He is drenched. I still think the Pacific was drier than the air. Most definitely warmer. He lays down, and within 20 minutes, I realize that he is shivering. He NEVER shivers. I tell him to go inside. He doesn't even argue. It is cold. I am sure he realizes that I intend to stay out all night, even though he tells me to wake him at midnight. It is 1830. He had been out there since 1630. By midnight, I was counting down the 30 minutes until our normal watch shift at 1230. Then it would be even watches, just backwards from normal. I was a popsicle. I was so happy to curl up between Poseidon and Laralei that I passed out almost immediately. I think I was still cold when I woke up in the morning.
Position at Editing: 31.32.344N 136.22.907W @1650 8.7.13
P.S. Why some of these are edited days late is that we go lengths of time without having good HF spectrum to connect over SSB. So, I tend to review them before they all head out en masse.
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