All that first day the wind and sea increased. Clouds raced in ragged clumps across a low purple-grey sky. The barometer was falling at an alarming rate when the first squall line appeared.  It was late afternoon yet it felt like midnight as the entire Southern sky lit up with continuous flashes of lightening.  The clouds moved in like a solid wall imprisoning all in their path. Nature had lost control. Our universe was on a rampage of raw brute power.

Vega her decks awash, her relieving ports gushing like waterfalls, was running with the wind about 15 degrees off her stern quarter. Crashing into the confused seas her bow flinging water in all directions she advanced at 5-6 knots wearing only her iron taught staysail.

On deck Vega was fighting a deadly battle, but one she knew well. It was amazing how well the boat reacted. No screaming of wood or tortured frames.  No violent tossing about.  This was the fight she had been built for all those years ago. This was why her frames are so heavy and her planking so thick. Vega was built to survive the worst of the North Sea storms. Now she was proving how well her long dead builders had made her.

For the helmsman, or woman, time ceased. It was surviving each cold wet miserable minute one at a time. The decks were awash constantly. Water ripped from the wave tops was blinding.  The wind tore the very breath from our lungs. The compass was a blur, yet that compass was reality. Steering the coarse was a matter of life or death in those chaotic seas. Vega would fight, but she needed our help to win.

Off watch, coming out of the howling winds, raging seas, and shivering cold into the almost total calm of the main cabin exhausted sleep came easily. Awakening the boat always seemed to be moving in a more sedate manner. Every one of us would wake up and get ready for our watch thinking the storm was dying out. That is until we put our heads out of the hatch and the wind would almost blow our hair off. As Meggi noted, going from the peaceful calm of the cabin into that horror story of nature gone insane could never be imagined unless you actually lived through it.

This lasted for two and a half days. The worst came at the end of the second day. The sea was truly impressive by that time. The waves seemed to tower over our masts and the winds came in fearsome gusts. On the second day we finally set the storm jib and trysail. Not so much because we needed them, but because we thought we should. They made little difference. Vega had been just as happy with only her staysail.

Late on the second day we were assaulted by a series of rogue waves directly from the stern. They were confused and breaking. One slammed our stern hard. White water raced across the aft deck carrying all in its path. The helmsman wedged hard against the wheel was almost torn from his place. Only seconds later another massive wave broke across the quarter.

These waves were completely out of sync with the normal waves. They came from unusual directions. There were only 7 or 8 of them but they left their mark in passing. Our steering piston once again shattered at the drive connection. This time the damage was compounded by a broken rudder pintle. The top pintle is 1 1/2” diameter, about 35 mm; it had shattered like glass from that final impact.

This time it took only seconds to establish emergency steering. The sea was so rough it was impossible for two people to turn the rudder. It seemed to take hours rigging the already prepared relieving tackles and establish control. The whole time we all prayed another giant rogue wasn't bearing down on us out of the night.  We could steer but only with two people on the tackles. Shouting steering instructions down the hatch was almost impossible with the screaming wind and thundering seas.

Just a note here about sails: When Peter of Quantum sails, in Durban, made that staysail for us he said he was making it strong. Well Peter you made it strong! We never even needed that lovely reef you built into it. In fact we only set the storm jib on the final day “because we thought we should”. Truth be told she was happier with her normal working staysail.