Fiji to New Zealand | Storms at Sea
The first few days of our sail was pretty miserable. We were beating into 35 knots with a short period 3 meter swell causing the Pacific Ocean to enter our cockpit every few seconds. The entire boat was getting battered by winds and waves throwing her around as if she were a toy boat. It was one of those moments where the ocean certainly made us feel quite small!
The second morning we woke up to the unfortunate sight of a torn mainsail. For most of our sails we would happily cruise just under head sail, but when beating into wind it is the mainsail which really drives us forward. This was a problem. We dropped the sail and taped it as best as we could given the conditions. After hoisting the main back up it took less than an hour of the wind to take apart our repair. Due to the constant spray coming over the boat we could not get a clean surface to tape to which caused such an early fail. There was only one option, the sewing kit! This was safe to say one of the most challenging sewing jobs I have done and am in no hurry to beat that record!
After three days of slamming into waves the winds started to ease and the seas began to calm down which was a most welcome change!