SV Olivia

Tuesday 1^st November

We set sail in calmer waters, the swell had diminished and we had a glimpse of sunshine on the horizon.  I had made a ‘packed’ breakfast the night before so I would not have to spend any time rolling around in the galley which had triggered my seasickness the day before.

We had a glorious window of good weather in the afternoon.  The waves were still quite big but they were not breaking and the rain stopped. With a nice 15 Kn wind from North-West we hoisted Olivia's gennaker for the first time: Olivia was happily stretching her legs making 8-9 Knots (ok, ok, with 1 kn of current in favour but still).

This fun lasted a few hours but at dusk we saw a thunderstorm

approaching from the East. We took down the gennaker on time and took two reefs in the mainsail; at that point Cara noticed that the mainsail had a large tear at the top seam. Reluctantly we took down the mainsail and started the engine.

The night was tough as the waves did not let up and there was a continuous series of rainstorms.

Nadia slept in the saloon as the forepeak was too rough.  She woke up when her head banged into the table.  When I got up at 3am to do my shift, Nadia was sleeping holding on to the table! It was raining hard and visibility was poor.  Enrico was soaked and within minutes all my warm clothes were wet

The worst stom hit us around 3.30am, at about 30 miles North of Tioman: the wind was not too strong (25 Kn) but the rain was so intense that we could not see a thing in the pitch black night.

Cara and I reduced speed and stood in the cockpit trying to spot "anything ahead" but it was like riding a scooter in a car wash at night with no helmet for 2 hours.

We were sure (from the GPS and AIS) that the there was no land nor large ships in front of us but what about a log or a small fishing boat?  Fortunately there were no obstacles in our way.

When the wind died down Enrico managed to squeeze into a dry spot under the dodger and sleep for a few hours while I took over.  The person on duty had to stand as the only visibility through the driving rain was over the top of the dodger.  The relief was enormous when the sun rose and the night was behind us. At about 9am, completely soaked and exhausted we entered Tioman Marina where, once more Kym and Mike were waiting to help us mooring.

1 novembre

Con meno onda e un bel vento  da nord-ovest abbiamo issato per laprima volta il gennaker di Olivia (evviva!) .

Con 15 nodi di vento Olivia correva felice a 8-9 nodi (vabbe' e' vero, c'era un po di corrente a favore ma non fa niente). E' persino uscito il sole e ci siamo riconciliato col mondo.

Il bello e' finito quando al tramonto abbiamo avvistato un temporale

da est; ammainato subito il gennaker abbiamo anche preso due mani di terzaroli per precauzione; e' stato a questo punto che Cara si e' accorta che il ferzo della randa in testa d'albero si era quasi

completamente scucito. A malincuore abbiamo ammainato la randa e acceso il motore. La notte e' stata poi un susseguirsi di temporali;

il peggiore e' stato alle 3.30 del mattino a circa 30 miglia a nord di

Tioman. Il vento non era terribile (25 nodi) ma la pioggia era cosi'

intensa che non si vedeva nulla nella notte nera.

Io e Cara abbiamo ridotto la velocita'  e siamo rimasti in piedi a

cercare di avvistare qualunque ostacolo. Era come guidare una vespa in an autolavaggio di notte, senza casco per due ore.

Sapevamo (grazie al GPS e AIS) che davanti a noi non c'erano ne' isole ne' grosse navi, ma i pescherecci erano la nostra inquetudine.

Finalmente alle 9 del mattino, completamente fradici e un po' esausti siamo entrati nel marina dell'isola di Tioman dove ad attenderci in banchina c'erano Kym e Mike (sempre loro, magici!).