Rough Seas and Crew Casualties
Sandy here. I’ve been coaxed into writing the blog during this trip by my daughter Jess who happens to be the skipper. I should do what she says in case she makes me walk the plank…….
Disclaimer: Unlike my children, I myself am not a sailor so you’ll have to excuse any sailing jargon faux pas!
Day 1: The day started out really calm, and beautiful. But……little did we fully realise what was ahead of us.
My chariot awaits
The team from Hurricane Rigging doing a stellar job at fixing this beast of a boom
I suspect we need to take this with us
The crew instantly began working as a team and learning a few new skills along the way. This was Jess’s first time as the skipper and she was brilliant, so calm and mindful. The calm waters of the Marlborough Sounds meant Jess could put us through our paces and check the sailors from non-sailors. Teams were made up, the roster shared, and everyone jumped into action as the wind began to pick up.
Repeat offender Will back for more punishment
Steve staring hard at the horizon
We learnt to use the winches safely, what ropes were attached to the sails and what their job actually was. Unfortunately for my pinky finger, one winch handle connected to a slipping winch, flipped back and whacked the tip of my finger. However this meant that Jess had a learning opportunity to share with John and Rachel on how to service a winch and put it back in place as good as new(wish they could do the same for my finger).
Jess showing John and Rachel how to service a winch. Hoping not to drop anything over the side!
Now……back to the weather. Everything looked great and this was going to be a nice sailing day. We were so wrong. The wind came up to roughly 25 knots gusting 30 knots on the beam. With a 2m swell to go with it, crew members began dropping like flies. In the end 7 of our 10 crew were dealing with sea sickness in their own way.
Me excited to leave the sounds, before I knew what was ahead!
Jess and her Chief Mate Jason did an amazing job of keeping everything under control with reefing sails early in the night and keeping the boat moving at around 7-8knots over the course of the day.
Day turned to night with some crew unable to leave their bunks, but credit to the whole team who kept soldiering on.
Here’s to a better tomorrow with calm skies!
Fair winds and following seas,
Sandy(Jess’s Mum)
Rosalie happy to be back on the boat having sailed on her way back in 2017
The Cook Strait luring us into a false sense of security….
