Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
direction I had sailed. I saw I had drifted well south again! Cold and bleak and very de-
pressed, I was coming to the conclusion that sailors are quite mad.
All day and all night and again the next day we had an incessant northeast gale. I had been
running downwind as I could not sail against the strong winds and heavy seas that were
crashing under poor Déjà vu's keel. (I remind the reader that when I use the term “we” I
am referring to Déjà vu and myself and I suppose to some degree the friendly companions
I have in the sea birds that tended to keep me constant company.)
I had up a triple reefed main without a headsail and was officially hove to, just idling
between the waves at around one knot in speed. This felt better than heaving to with the jib,
but I was being struck on the beam by big waves. I believed the gale was due to the new
moon; I had seen this pattern several times now and was pretty certain of it.
After a couple of days, the gale abated finally from the north. It then backed to a westerly
wind and threw up a terribly confused sea. Memories of the Three Kings drama in New
Zealand vividly replayed in my tired mind. However, after a few hours it rounded anti-
clockwise to the southeast, where it remained fairly steady.
The seas calmed down now as they began marching along in an orderly fashion from one
direction only, that being from the southeast. I hauled up the headsail and shook a reef out
of the main and reset her self-steering vane. According to the walker log on the taffrail the
following day, I did one hundred and fifty miles. We were virtually flying along! The wel-
come southeaster was at least twenty-five to thirty knots. What a difference running with it
makes. Everything was still very cold and wet on-board, making life quite miserable, but
we were headed in the right direction and fast, so it was OK!
The next couple of days saw us still galloping along, doing five to six knots in southeast
trades. It was still very cold and damp at nights, but I continued to light the paraffin lamp,
and it was at least dry and warm below. I became very active on the guitar and learned a
lot! Thank heavens I bought that instructional book, an invaluable gem called
Chord Chem-
istry
, by Ted Green. It really shifted my attention from worrying about the grim, stormy
weather outside to something as absorbing as the study of music. It was a wonderful diver-
sion, though it was not that easy to undertake. Many's the jazz progression that was inter-
rupted with me being flung over onto my side, with me screeching obscenities at Poseidon
or Murphy or whoever was in charge down here at these ungodly latitudes.
It was very rough sailing and cannot be accurately described. When in very heavy weather,
the prudent sailor will lay out sea drogues or anchors that drag through the water from the
back of the boat, thus slowing his progress and lessening the chances of pitch poling into
a trough. Pitch poling spells disaster in any sailor's language and involves the boat being
thrown forward by a huge, fast moving, and steep wave. The luckless boat would dig her
