Travel Reference
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eral years before. I had never thought I would use it! I went forward and, from the anchor
locker, I fished out another very long, thick anchor line which I muscled to the cockpit.
Déjà vu was sailing a lot faster now, and I could tell that because of her weather helm, she
had altered course somewhat upwind. I needed to work fast.
Just then, Gavin yelled out to come and eat. We ate the hot concoction in nervous silence.
We both knew, with a sinking feeling, that we were in for it. He washed up the dishes as I
went above to continue with the preparations. “Just make sure all the ports and hatches are
really well-sealed, and stow any gear that is loose, please,” I yelled down.
“OK,” he replied without his usual caustic remarks. Yup, he was as worried as I was.
I completed the sea anchors by tying the car tire with a bowline in the middle of this large
coil of anchor rode and laid it in readiness on the seat next to me. I then called Gavin and
asked him to get our safety harnesses out and also our PFD's. They needed to be ready for
anyone who came above decks from now on. I made sure our man overboard gear was in
working order. We now sat in the heaving cockpit, looking about us nervously. Gavin had
lit a cigarette. “Wonder how long this will last?” he said exhaling a cloud of smoke.
“A normal front lasts for about three days; this just looks like a front but could be worse
judging by these seas that are building up.”
We both had our harnesses on and were strapped into our life jackets; we looked the part.
The glass continued to drop.
Déjà vu's self-steering system was beginning to be overpowered; I disconnected it and
began steering by hand. It was decided that we should drop the small working Genoa which
we had put up that morning and replace it with the tough little working jib. Gavin went to
the mast again, and I remained in the cockpit steering while we reefed the main sail down
to its last reefing row of cringles. Déjà vu's motion became a little steadier. I reconnected
the steering vane and set a course that would carry us diagonally across the troughs of these
seas that were gathering in length and height.
The sky grew darker and darker; low scudding clouds flew past us and rushed ahead. Frig-
ates and albatrosses and smaller sea birds were exploding around us in flight, some for the
sheer thrill of the oncoming storm, others appeared to be running from it. On the hour, we
turned on the SSB and listened to the weather. We couldn't believe that no mention was be-
ing made of this storm buildup. It was only on the second day that there was a gale warning
in the South Pacific within the five hundred mile quadrant that we were in. It sounded like
a normal late summer gale.
The seas continued to gather in size. Every now and then, one larger than normal wave
would come rolling down upon us, and it was very scary. “Jesus Christ, that was a big one.”
