I once read that the highest compliment that could be paid a boat is to say she is “forgiving”. We can honestly apply that term to our Island Packet 485. This day started out at 01:20 in the morning. We were tooling along with our comfy one reef in each of the main and Genoa sails flying wing on wing with the full Hoyt staysail in the middle. The wind went from 15 knots at 150 degrees on the port side to 50 knots at 90 degrees in the starboard side in less than three minutes flat! It was a hairy-scary 40 minutes before the boat was back under control, stern to the wind. How lucky that the main preventer line held, the guys holding the Genoa pole stayed in place, the rudder still works, our rig is still intact and none of the sails suffered any damage! The only casualty was dear “Pi”, our auto pilot. We shortened our regular three hour watches to two hours each, and hand steered until 08:30. Then Captain investigated and diagnosed that Pi had a roll pin out of joint. Lars popped it back it and voila! We were able to run the auto pilot again! Whew! What a relief! Our tired arms now could take a break and the nightmare of the squally darkness has once again given way to the Sweet Dream of day.
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