Eerily quiet this morning after three days of noise and motion.
Little sleep was had aboard GANNET last night until about 3 a.m. I might have dosed off briefly from time to time, but was soon awokened by a wave slamming into us or a gust of wind heeling the little boat far over. Sleeping in the bow, the sound and fury was extreme.
Two days ago the gusts were in the 20s and the lulls in the teens, Yesterday during the day I had the TackTick wind unit on and the gusts were in the low gale range, 34+ knots, with the lulls in the 20s. Winds were officially recorded last night in the North Island up to 64 knots, which is the start of Force 12, hurricane force. They weren't that high here, but I estimate the gusts last night were 45 to 50 knots, possibly slightly more.
At 3 a.m. the wind and waves began to decrease and I got some sleep. I woke at 7:30 to complete stillness.
Later in the morning I rowed ashore to shower and dispose of trash, and to walk around a bit. I’d been sitting down in the Great Cabin with hatches closed for too long. However, I didn’t need anything else. I still had some cheese and a half bottle of wine and was good for another day.
We didn’t have a lot of rain. I’ve seen the dinghy much fuller. As I have pointed out before, one of the advantages of not having an outboard is that you can just flip the dinghy over to empty it.
The storm revealed a few minor leaks. GANNET is never going to be dry. But the forward hatch did not leak. I wonder how long that will last once we return to sea and the hull starts to flex,
After eating the last of the Brie on crackers for lunch, I finished the lifelines and got in the dinghy and went around the hull, sanding spots on the rub rail that need touching up. I may do that tomorrow.
I look up from my laptop and see some blue sky through the companionway. GANNET is moving ever so slightly and gently. It is completely still. I’m glad.
