King's Legend - The night of the squalls

In the morning I woke up early full of energy ready for another day of sailing.

I baked bread made an apple cake cleaned the heads. We enjoyed ourselves with hoisting a spi. The day ended with a great dinner and a beautiful sunset.

And then..

Instead of a nice sleep the sea turned violent. Squalls. Huge clouds with loads and loads of rain and wind. The wind angle changes, the wind speed changes from no wind to over thirty knots of wind and back. Everything on board creaks, moans, sighs and moves. I am unable to find the right sleeping position. I wake up, check, help out, close hedges, open hedges, too warm, too wet. Not a moment to relax, I stay fully alert and concentrated.

And still..

The biggest challenge is not so much to stay concentrated but the ability to relax, to make the right choice in when to get up and help. When I am tired and full of adrenaline it is so hard to relax my body andnmind. I guess that is the hardest part of sailing.

The yacht is more than suited for ocean sailing and can handle squalls easily. The question as always is; but can we? Or more can I?

Last night I couldn’t; of course we sailed through the night and of course the sun rose like every morning but I lost myself along the way. Fortunately I had an easy day and time to relax body and mind, time to re-energize.