Tough Days

The last two days were tough. We’re in Lysekil, and each had an awesome 2 minute 5 kroner shower.

The winds have been S or SW, and strong. Today we cut short at around 5 pm due to a “near gale” warning issued, and due to the fact that the seas were absurd, the wind was the wrong direction, the current was 3 knots in the wrong direction, and cause we god damn well felt like cutting it short.

Both days involved the real sea, big waves, open water, or at least the sense of it. The crossing from Norway left us 25 miles from land, in the middle of the Skagerrak. The conditions were fantastic, but we hit a small snag of a 2.5 kt current in our face as we approached the Swedish coast in a SW wind. It seems the entire Baltic is trying to drain into the North Sea via Bohuslan.

When we left Hunnebostrand this morning, it was the first time in my entire life that I’ve felt a certain sensation oft spoken of. We cut the engine just after a narrow channel, making 5 knots in the right direction, and sure enough came a wave of such a size that we were taken aback- we both paused. It was massive. I know it was 4 meters or bigger but don’t really have a valid guess. I just know that it passed beneath us, we fell, and we both breathed. I turned around and mentioned to Catherine that my bowels felt a little “tense”. She agreed hers did as well.

As the day wore on I tried to get some photographic evidence of the size of the seas, it’s nearly impossible. Just take our word that the waves were up, they were inspiring, but not in a good way. The boat took them beautifully, I couldn’t be happier with the way all four of us sailed. Lars pooped in his box, and left no vomit.

We went nowhere today, and aren’t getting any closer to home. We had dreams of Skagen, but the forecast tomorrow of 3 m/s, and the next day of 20 m/s, is making that perfectly implausible.

Because it’s difficult to take a good photo of a wave, I took many. Here are some (and some others):