Damn those Gods

Damn those Gods!  Is that blasphemous?  Well that's how I feel.  I couldn't get a weather forecast yesterday 'cos my data sim ran out of credit.  But the sun was out and a gentle breeze was blowing from the north when I got up this morning.  So I slipped moorings and left.  Got the sails up pretty quickly and I was soon romping west with the wind on the beam - a good point of sailing.  We touched 7 knots which isn't bad for a 33 footer.  I was anxious to hear from my son who'd had an operation in Graz yesterday.  He had two growths on his head.  One was taken out two months ago, the larger one yesterday.  It wasn't a big operation by any means, but when one of your family is going 'under the knife' you're bound to worry.  I spoke to the Gods or the angels, whoever it is up there directing things, asking them to look after my son and to make the operation successful.  I told them if they did they could 'take payment' from me if they liked.  They took me at my word, damn them.  No sooner had I received a text from Adam saying the op. had gone well and all was OK than the wind picked up.

I was soon reefed down and only minutes later I put a second reef in.  Just in time since a viscious squall and torrential rain hit me minutes later.  The wind got up to 25 knots and I had my time cut out sailing the boat in ever roughening seas.  I was still sailing, fast, but soon had to turn north into the teeth of it to follow my route to Sandvik.  I had to furl away the genny and was sailing under engine and deeply reefed main when there was a bang. I froze expecting something important to come crashing down, but nothing obvious.  Then I noticed, my lazyjacks were flying out to leeward instead of being attached to the mast. (Lazyjacks are lines from the top of the mast to the mainsail bag on the boom and enable you drop the main straight down onto the boom under control.  Without them the mainsail blows all over the place when it's dropped) Nothing too critical in light winds but it was going to be fun when I tried to drop the main in winds like this.  I decided to attemp this when I reached the most northerly point of my route today.  I got the main down OK but it was impossible to bag.  The boat was pitching all over the place and the wind was filling the sail and blowing it out of my grasp. After being thrown about and hanging onto the boom for dear life I eventually got some sail ties on the main so it was under control and I turned my attention to getting into harbour and shelter.  I had 7 miles to go to Sandvik and we fairly flew there under a mere scrap of genny that I had up.  Then I banged my head.  The reefed mainsail meant the boom was lower than normal and in the intensity of the moment I forgot. I stood up quickly moving across the cockpit to look out to leeward and 'crack'!  It was a helluva bang and I swore like a trooper!  Nursing my head for a few minutes and a few well chosen curses got me through the moment but I knew it was going to hurt the next day! Putting out fenders and warps on the pitching deck between making course changes to avoid the plentiful rocks was also a job and a half and I'd had a soaking or two from the boisterous seas by the time I'd finished, but I eventually arrived.  I saw a buoy I could pick up and called to a yachtsman on a nearby boat if he could take my bow lines.  He was only too willing to help of course but I missed the buoy on my first pass - the strong wind on my beam just blew me away.  I reversed out to try again but was blown downwind into some shallows.  My rudder was first to hit and it jammed right over to starboard and wouldn't budge.  I had no steerage and my keel soon found the rocks too.  This was getting serious and I wrenched the tiller with all my might.  Thank God the rudder freed and I managed to motor out of danger.  I picked up the buoy on my next attempt and two yachtsmen who had seen the trouble I was having managed to grab my bow lines and hang on whilst I made the sternline fast and made my way forward to make off the two bow lines.  It's at times like this that being single handed is so difficult.  You just cannot be in two places at once and you really are at the mercy of the wind. 

I was grateful to be in harbour and still remembered to thank 'them up there' for looking after Adam and getting me in safely.  It was a price I was prepared to pay.