Official Jessica Watson Blog

 
But after a few hours I decided that watching and fretting wasn't doing any good, so I dug out the most trashy novel I could find, put together a play list of quite gentle music on my ipod and sat down to read with just one speaker in. (I hardly ever use both speakers so I can hear what's happening on deck. After so long at sea I pretty much sail Ella's Pink Lady by my ears, well not literally, but I'm constantly listening out for any little changes!).

After that, the wind picked up to 25 to 30 knots on the nose and along with a messy sea and pouring rain. That's not my definition of comfortable sailing.

Then, as I started to think things were improving the wind suddenly started gusting like crazy, laying Ella's Pink Lady right over on her side and pinning her there. While I was having some serious fun (note sarcasm!) reefing in the cockpit (double clipped on of course!), down below, water was flooding in up through the sink because of the crazy angle we were on. Normally I shut the sink seacock when the weather’s a bit bouncy. But having thought that things were quietening down, I'd only just opened it again. The water flooded right through the galley then into the bilges. But Ella’s Pink Lady's pumps soon had it out again. I'm not particularly thrilled about my soggy mess of a galley.

 
But far more annoyingly, before I managed to get enough of it down, the mainsail tore badly in two places. The wind didn't last long and when the weather improves a bit I've got a lot of stitching ahead of me.

Everyone's telling me not to let my guard down being so close to home. But believe me, with this weather keeping me on my toes, there's no way I'm relaxing in the slightest. I was beginning to think that I'd seen a fair range of different weather but this lightning has been something new.

 
But it's all part of the challenge and will only make me appreciate finally being able to relax even more when we are safely tied up to a dock in Sydney. Oh and a bed that's not damp, I'm really looking forward to that too!

I'm feeling much better for some decent sleep today and after a chat over  the sat phone to my sister, team and a few friends, I am feeling so cheerful that I'm not even too annoyed about the cabin being a soggy mess and the continued miserable weather.

 
Right now we should have a lot more sail up and could be going a bit faster but with lightning flashing in the distance again, the torn mainsail and all the drama of this week, I'm happy to just take it easy till things clear up a bit more.

Jesse