We prepped the boat to set sail and prepped ourselves for the hell we were about to encounter, knowing that with the storm, the winds were likely to reach up to 80 knots (which they did!).
Within only a few minutes of sailing, waves were completely covering the whole deck of the boat and leaving the
cock pit would have certainly meant being thrown overboard.
You couldn't even stand up for longer than 5 seconds without falling over and trying to do things like cleaning my teeth were a challenge to say the least!
From then on, almost everyone on board, except the captain, spent 36 hours laying horizontally. This was to avoid having to always balance yourself and therefore counter act the poisoning effect on your brain. Luckily I could still read without feeling sick and got completely engrossed in my book (Marching Powder), which I finished by the time we crossed the Colombian border!
On the 2nd night, the wind and the storm got even worse and to even stay in the beds, we were all having to hold on so tight that our knuckles were white. At one point we got caught by a massive wave and the whole boat was tipped fully to one side. Everything in the kitchen (even though it was locked into place) flew and smashed into the other wall, I was lifted fully off the bed and landed on top of Pam with alot of force! Even the beds collapsed! At this point everyone was thinking the same but never voiced it - 'are we actually gonna make it through this?!'... It sounds extreme now, but the conditions were so bad at the time!
The captain, (who hadn't really slept for 2 days) kept coming to check on us and help put the interior of the boat back together. But he was a little wide eyed and said the weather was messing with his head! He later admitted that it was was the worst weather he has ever sailed in!
xxx
