All the stories are true – Furies Fifties

All the stories are true – Furies Fifties
All sea going people have read 50
south – 50 south, 2 years before the mast and have seen the movie ‘around the
horn’. Gales blowing, struggling to keep your course and trying not to go too
much into the south in case of Ice bergs.. Well all the stories are true! And we
haven’t even gotten to the Horn yet!

This morning, after an ominous
calm, the wind picked up and the skies cleared. Bright blue waves got bigger and
bigger to the point where the spray of the waves blown of by the wind made small
rainbows all around us. But hey! the sun was shining, so everybody was outside
soaking up the sun. In the evening clouds moves in and the colour of the water
turned into a dark heavy blue. Grey waves swooped by and kept on rising. We
lowered the main as we measured 30 knots of wind and reeved the mizzen to the
(never used before) second reef. And still we where running with an average of 8
or 9 knots!

During the night watch we got washed a bit by a big breaking
wave. Nothing too serious, just wet sailing suits and a clean deck, but it did
signify the increase of the height of the wave, now up to about 5 meters. Wind is
still between 30 en 40 knots, even though it seemed to calm down a bit as the
sun rose – but now it is back to gale force wind. These furies fifties are all
they are cracked up to be!