A rough passage

Current location: Guernsey Island, the Channel Islands, 49°27’19’’N 2°32’5’’W

We knew we were up for a beating having already checked the weather. Bam – bam – bam. That was the sound of the aluminum hull stomping the ocean surface over and over and over. The sun was ought, and so was the wind. With a current of 3.5 knots working against us, we made it towards the Channel island Guernsey in snail speed. It was windy, wet yet sunny. My mood was up, I loved it, as for the rest of the crew, well, and they were not as thrilled. After about 7 hours, the autopilot resigned itself from it’s duties. After having failed us three times, we decided that helming by hand, or at least guarding the helm was necessary. About every seventh wave caused green water to flush up the entire deck, splash on the windshield, the dodger and then disperse into foam just above the helms. It wasn’t buckets of water coming over you, more like never ending soft sprays. It turn’s out that touch screens on navigational units is only a good solution when docked and in pretty weather. Each droplet that landed on the screen caused the chart to either zoom in or out or entirely move its focus from the boat’s location. It was becoming a serious problem. Evidently it was also the droplets being sprayed all the way from the bow that encouraged the autopilot to change course and sometimes simply turn itself off. The weather was rough, and had I been on a smaller boat with an inexperienced crew I would not have enjoyed it. But the fact was that mu Skipper knew what he was doing, and the boat wasn’t about to fail, so I took every second of it to learn and enjoy. Call me crazy, but I love extreme weather.