Spencer Update 6/18 ... Three Sheets to the Wind!

Thursday, 6/18/09

6:00pm position:  

36 deg. 56 min. North,  

15 deg. 27 min. west

Is was nice to get some emails out here.  Thank you very much.

10:00am

This morning wind and seas started increasing.   Mid day we had gusts at around 30 mph and seas at 6 to 8 feet.  Last night before dark we had reefed or shortened our mainsail down about 20%.  Just now we took down the forwad most sail, the  big jib and and put up the smaller "stay sail" so we wouldn't be over powered.

1:45pm

Winds gusting to 36 mph.  We're plowijng thru the seas which are building- 8 to 10 feet.  It's getting pretty difficult to move around

the boat.

3:00pm

We have reefed the mainsail down to about 50% and dropped the mizzen sail (one in the back).  Wind and seas continuing to build.

4:00pm

Winds are up to 42 knots or over 50 mph.  We have dropped the forward staysail and are sailing with double reefed mainsail alone.

4:30

It can't get too much worse than this....  We have lightning and winds up to 60 mph.   Crazy how it can go from beautiful to tropical storm force winds in less than 24 hours.

5:00 pm

Looks like the worst is over... Everybody is a little wet an cold but in a smaller more exposed boat it could of been muuch worse.

What a crazy day.....

Stefano made some butternut squash soup for dinner with fresh baked bread. We are all a little cold and wet.   It was very good. (not quite as good as Victoria's though!)

Then to Victoria on Friday 6/19/09:  

It was a crazy day yesterday.....  And then on top of all that in the middle of the night our engine died as the winds were heading us and dying.   We lost several hours with the engine down and trying to figure things out.   Looks like we probably got bad fuel in the Azores and it's clogging up the filters.  All is well this morning as I write this (Friday, 6/19/09).