23 August - Windy, the Wind

0600 position 23-42S 166-13W. Day's run 156 miles.

It was a tough day. Matt had the worst of it on his 6AM to noon watch.
The wind and seas kept building until we had thirty knots from just aft of
the beam. The winds were no problem with a triple reefed main and jib,
but the seas were very large and confused. The waves would occasionally
combine at the wrong moment to break right on Moku pe'a and we'd get
slammed. Water everywhere, including down the main hatch just missing the
computer, so I put it away in a plastic bag in my cabin and only just got
it back out during my morning watch twelve hours later. We ended up
bearing off twenty degrees from our desired course which made things a
little drier, but the wind stayed up most of the afternoon before
gradually dying back to the point that we could shake the third reef in
the mainsail at midnight and come back up to course. No harm done. We
didn't break anything and the boat is beginning to dry up.

Perhaps we were a little too aggressive in our dive south to hook into
this passing low pressure area. The gribs predicted twenty four knots of
wind in our location, and that may have been pretty close, on average. We
were getting five minute periods of thirty knots and then five minutes
closer to twenty knots for most of the day. Strange how it cycled up and
down. The gusts were colder and came from further left. It was probably
upper level winds dropping down to the surface. I think we've seen the
worst of it though. The forecast for tomorrow shows the same wind
strength, but from further aft which is more manageable.

As I write this I can tell that a flying fish just came aboard on the deck
over my head. I can hear him flopping around in the scuppers. Oh boy, I
get to touch another one of those slimy smelly bastards…