Although not signalled by the weather forecasts, the barometer dropped from 1016 mb to 1003 mb in 10 hours, heralding a deep low pressure event. Friday the 13 th then proceeded to justify its scary reputation. From some 40 kts at midnight on the 12 th the wind strengthened to 51 kts at 0100 and gusted 55 kts at 0200 (why do all these events seem to happen in the middle of pitch black nights?). Through the build, we continually shortened sail in good time and the auto helm coped well. The waves were about 18 feet at peak and appeared to tower above the deck as they came roaring from astern. The night was coal black, and only the stern white NAV light showed the magnitude of the walls of water racing down on us. The wind whistled and shrieked in the rigging and Sapphire charged on at speeds around 13 kts.
By 0700 the wind had abated to 40+ kts and it felt like we were becalmed. The ugly seas were still giving us a bashing so that sleep was out of the question. At the height of the storm all four of us were on deck, while Alex hung on in the saloon.
In the light of day we could now see the sea state with very large, curling waves breaking around us, white water everywhere and spray and foam flying off the tops of the rollers. The boat performed impeccably, calmly handling the conditions and evoking complete confidence in her crew.
Some yachts in the fleet did not fare so well. There were reports of Chinese gybes, torn sails, main sheet blocks torn away and a number of auto helm failures. This was a baptism of fire for the fleet and not really what the crews likely expected on the very first leg of a 15 month circumnavigation!