Yesterday we was hit by a cold front, we know a front was comming, it was supposed to give NE wind 15 to 20 kn, for a few hours , then calm down. The cold front came suddenly, the wind shifted from 10 kn SW to NNE in a second and increased to 20 to 25 true wind, apperant was more 25 to 30 kn knots which remained all nigh. We sailed closed hauled from late afternoon to early morning , we hade to make a few tacks as well. The night gave us the roughest sailing so fare. The waves rose quickly and become very short,. Kerpa was occasionally bouncing heavily in to the short waves, water rushing over deck and over the sprayhood ( who need a few new sippers not to let water into the cockpit ). I’m very glad that i tensioned the lower shruds on the mizzen mast before we left, they where to slack to my liking before and earlier when bouncing into waves the mizzen mast was shivering, but not this time, felt much better even though we fell off some rather big waves and hit the wather with
full force.
To move inside one had to be very careful not to hurt one self. Therefore the one off watch tried to sleep in the cockpit, but first put on all cloth we had readily available and on top of that a blanket and still it was cold. Not “wet and warm”, ” but wet and cold ”
At day break the wind eased a little and we are now motoring eta 1900 to 2000 to night.
Looking forward to reach a safe berth, a cup of tea, a glas of wine in an environment that not bounce you around.

An interesting observation; during a few hours yesterday afternoon before the wind picked up, we heard at least 5 different distress calls to the Coast Guard. Mainly fuel problem, lack of fuel or dirty fuel, but as the wind picked up the situation could quickly become hazardous. One boat had a leak and one call was maybee more serious, as the distress call was interrupted during transmission the Coast Guard tried several times during many hours to get in contact with that vessel but no success. The US Coast Guard seams to be very busy in real life not only on the television.

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