By yesterday evening the wind had risen to 20 - 25 knots and the seas were building. It was a rough night in my hidey hole bunk up front. When I started my watch at 3:00am there was little change; a dark starless night, lumpy seas the boat lurching about the place. Sunrise brought daylight, heavy overcast and no sunshine. The shipping traffic had all melted away.
By midday the winds had strengthenend to between 20 - 30 knots and confused breaking seas all around, the waves around around 12 - 15 ft high and not much distance between them. A couple of freighters slid by, one bound for Singapore emerged like a grey ghost from the murk taking the weather in her stride.
Whereas it is nice to be out of the weather in the pilot house, it is not so comfortable and seems to exaggerate the boats irregular motion. I sat out in the cockpit for a while and watched our grey ghost slip by. It was pleasant, if blustery, and more comfortable than being inside. It reminded me of my trip across that Atlantic many years ago with a stiff wind on the quarter and Loujaine going like a bat out of hell with a human hand on the helm. This boat has hydraulic steering which gives zero feedback to the helm. The auto pilot keeps the boat with +/-30 degrees of our course.
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