Our Worst Storm Yet

[Music] [Music] I'm just gonna say I've never seen a wall of water come into this boat it was probably a foot deep in the cockpit all right I thought things were getting better but they're not clocked in at 20.4 knots I believe it feels crazy to be flying up the coast of Brazil here and uh we're just talking about what we're gonna do when we get the Grenada I think we're both ready for a break not a lot of sailing and you know I said about it I just want to call them Anchorage look s like we haven't had calm water since we left uh Cape Town over a month and a half ago like uh leaving the boat from all the leaving the boat from all the anchorages we've been at you you leave and you're like you've got wobbly legs when you arrive on land and that's a symptom of a rolling anchor yeah what do you think I think it's poignant to point out the uh conditions out here that often get glossed over 80 plus percent of the time you got waves from multiple directions I'll take you outside next and maybe you can identify how many directions the waves are coming from and in here it may not look that bad but it's causing the boat to go this way this way and this way there's a lot of hobby horsing going on okay so you got a wave going this way [Applause] on our way I was kind of pushing it today because I'm like we didn't push it between saying Helena and Fernando de nirano neronja we didn't push it at all like we never put the code up when it was over like 15 knots it took us 14 days to get there and I'm like I'm kind of like I'm thinking I'm feeling the need to arrive do you know what I mean like there's a celebration When we arrive it's a big deal after sailing around the world for the past eight years we're currently on the last leg of our first circumnavigation yes that's confusing first Circle navigation how many are there but if that wasn't enough of a challenge we wanted to see if we could do it with two little stowaways what the hell it actually pulled the thing off though I'm going to be playing on Marlin it's a tiny Marlin want to eat it no when did that soil they're too cute they're too big they're too much mercury do you have any of it gonna get his glove too yeah you don't want to touch the bill of uh Marlin it's really really sharp I've done it once hurts for a long time beautiful Harry all right guys alive today I've never seen him that small I don't know how old they are I wonder if you know how old that fish is that'd be really interesting because I know they got huge [Music] fish on uh 10 seconds later I guess I think we're nearest [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] birthdays [Music] yeah we're a little quick here ready it's gonna heat up the air fryer and basically all I do is I dip them flour egg Panko and then we're gonna put all these in the airfryer and cook them for like 10 minutes Max so I'm not blessed and that's it that's it shower time let's go shower are you guys alive is there anybody there is there about somebody there and who's over here 2 A.M in the morning I just came on shifts um we're headed we were headed southbound we had some Southern components I told Ashley like I'm Sailing by the wind when I went off shift and uh yeah we're heading in I said where I said we're going towards the current so Ben Ben goes to bed and we had like one of those quick handovers like I'm going to bed we're Sailing by the wind we're heading in that was it and then he's like oh and there's there's a ship that you should be coming at some point in the night so what happens he goes down the waves start coming over the back there's like children getting Airborne in bed Ben's apparently not sleeping great I can't do my exercises shit's flying everywhere and I thought it was on purpose he comes up and he's like why are you heading that way out ah you did really really I hardly slept last night because I was getting Airborne we're trying to head towards the current so right there where we are we have 0.8 knots of current if we just go a little bit further we're gonna have 2.9 knots of current it's almost two knots more in current that's a lot of difference so we're trying to get on this conveyor belt that's headed north along the Brazilian Coast that'd be sweet next to three knots of current uh it always takes them a minute to wake up it's a Sleeping Bear but uh there was certainly some miscommunication but I made a lot of progress towards that current let's just put it that way what do you think Ben A for effort oh yeah we're almost in the current now took the pain so yeah it's been one of those nights but I feel good and I'm gonna go to bed now I must say this enclosure is is beautiful not only when you're sailing and it's rough out is it windy and and and raw like wavy but also the noise is a big factor I think in terms of fatigue uh it is loud out there it's really loud and inside it's all muffled by quite a bit it takes it down a lot of decibels so you kind of are in your own little bubble chilling out kids are watching TV um it's all about keeping the crew rested safe and uh happy we look at the tree wind we'll see what it is so we had a Max of true when it was just 34. that's not even that high that's pretty reasonable made crafts yesterday made rainbows hey one of those booties mom's always the best at making crafts but yeah it's not actually that windy it's 34 is our Max it's just the steepness of the waves and with them being so Steep and the period so short which is basically the same thing they topple at the top and they get a lot of foam a lot of spray a lot of salt spray out there so that's the day wore on the wave just kept getting a bit steeper a bit bigger we'd look at each other and think this must be the peak of the storm and sure enough things would die down for a bit only to get launched by an even bigger set of waves the boat kept going faster and faster and faster I think we have broken our all-time high-speed record we just surfed at 19.6 check this out you can't make that up man that is fast this wasn't the first or last speed record that day they just kept coming and coming to a point where we started to worry the things might go horribly wrong and they started to [Music] that was epic I'm just gonna say I've never seen a wall of water come into this boat that crazy like it was all over the seats it was probably a foot deep in the cockpit what happens is I think there's these huge stats that come through and that way broke on us I was like oh wow that's a big wave like there's a big one right now Nathan said it out loud to will it and then it freaking did it like it like broke on us it's it's intensive like very uncomfortable and the waves are masking math and part of the problem to be honest is um we're not we're not going down the waves we're not keeping up with the wave train um because we're not really going that fast but if we're able to have a better speed in the troughs and just glide through it and get back on the train and and wouldn't get filled um so what I'm basically going to do is I have two really long uh Mooring lines that tie them together and I'm going to tie a huge knot in the end of one so so the thought process behind this is just any kind of friction in the water we'll slow the boat down and you'd be surprised how much friction is actually created [Applause] so it seems to be working we've slowed down quite a bit um not ideal in terms of getting to our destination but now it is that we're gonna get pooped again uh since we're going so much slower the waves can come in the back and swamp us I've set up this boogie board an old boogie board to try and stop the waves from coming in the transom bit I don't know we'll see how this rides you just got to play with these things sometimes see what rides best tweak it is it [Music] do you ever wondered if kids scared about heavy weather they don't oh what do you want I'm gonna try flying this drone again see if I get a shot of the drove um I've been flying this thing a lot in heavy conditions and uh it's great like it's not that hard it probably looks really intimidating to fly a drone from a boat but it's not like you just I don't know just kind of go with waves and then bring it in we're legs the legs on this thing help a lot for catching it that's for sure and the other thing that helps a lot is that this thing is is really old um so if I lose it it's not you know the end of the world um almost disposable wait another one come in you look and look at behind you guys I look behind us it says that one's coming in and here again foreign storm there exists a lesson sometimes you don't conquer nature you learn to move with it as the boat surges and falls with the fury of the ocean it becomes clear that this isn't a battle to be won admits the chaos you find the essence of a humbling truth the sea never yields but it teaches excuse you in the art of humility and Agility it invites you to dance to his rhythm a complex choreography that has been perfected over millennia and by learning this dance you don't just make it through you become part of something much greater than yourself [Music] [Music] thank you oh almost lost it on that one that was a close one but I got it conditions like this are hard on crew and they're especially hard on crew when you also have to take care of children so um I think it's we are like after the next after today and last night today and I think this is going to carry On Through To probably midday tomorrow where it's going to be quite awful um we'll be tired yeah but it's not unsurmountable tiredness it's just yeah I'm gonna go down for my nap now the kids are down sleeping and I'm gonna go for a nap when they wake up Ben will probably put on a show because it's quite rough and um and he'll chill with them that way and uh that's okay because we're getting through this and it's not that bad but it is pretty rough man so the storm has passed it's calming it's starting to calm down a lot um the waves are manageable very manageable we've pulled in the drogue and uh we're a little bit wiser after that last storm you know you learn you've sailed all the way around the world almost and you're within 10 days of finishing your circumnavigation and you're still learning about the ocean and boat handling in more extreme conditions so it's a never-ending Journey being a sea man out here uh a sea woman a c person and it's wonderful we absolutely love it these kind of events just add to your confidence as a sailor and you don't get that confidence without the experience so if you're just setting out sailing you're gonna be caught in some squalls you might be scared but that will pass and you will gain confidence and experience and your Fear Factor will go down as we look forward to the next five ten years of sailing I think we're going to be in higher latitudes at times with a new boat and we will be experiencing some serious weather like we just saw and even maybe more serious than that and we would not feel comfortable doing that without the previous eight years of circumnavigating so um I think that is just something to be said that you don't jump into the deep end you learn on your Lake you learn at your local Yacht Club and then you work at your way up offshore and then you cross an ocean and then you sail around the world and then you go to more extreme places in the world yeah and if and if this is your first ocean Crossing from South Africa to here when you buy your boat in South Africa a lot of those guys have capped they have gain The Confidence from this huge ocean Crossing that they just started and that's it's incredible that the people that we know that have bought boats hired captains and sailed them here now have so much more experience because of that than just someone who buys a boat a locally even so there's it's really anyway getting those sea miles under your belts makes a world of difference when you are for your fears and anxieties as you are setting sail and there's really not a lot of other ways to do it um and uh the best way to do it is do it safely have a captain on board have experienced crew on board and then once you get to a certain stage like our stage you learn read and then do so just know what to do in those situations a lot of it's intuitive as well you know like you know how your book behaves and other boats may not be skitting down the waves like that and you would do something differently right so it's boat dependent as well yeah Super Boat dependent it's it's just really cool that sailing can push you again and again and again and um keeps it kind of keeps you alive it keeps you vibrant oh yeah uh I'm looking forward to the Caribbean because there's not I won't feel that there I'm 90 sure except for maybe those lightning storms in the Bahamas which everyone should be afraid of it's fun setting I'll show you what I said and it's gorgeous today but it's 24 hour period say good night good night all right it's absolutely beautiful out uh it's funny we started this passage with a full moon

Channel: Sailing Nahoa

Views: 1,959,788

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Id: vtHZiGgJ1VE

Length: 21min 46sec (1306 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 24 2023