Thursday, May 11, 1995 - On way, Aruba

The wind really picked up today. Blowing twenty knots or more straight out of the east. Since we're headed south, we're broadside to the waves, and they really clobbered us. The decks were awash. Twice I got waked out of a sound sleep by gallons of water gushing through the porthole on top of me. Roy also got drenched in the cockpit. The wave came right through the side-curtain and flooded the cockpit. The boat, of course, was rocking and rolling, yawing and pitching, and making every other motion a boat can make. One huge wave slammed us so hard broadside that we nearly capsized. I was jerked abruptly out of my sleep by being pitched forward and seeing unidentified objects flying by. I thought for a moment the boat had turned turtle, but then she righted herself. I picked the stuff up, straightened out the bed, and went back to sleep. Roy told me later we'd gone over fifty degrees! We're sure glad there's 6 1/2 tons of lead in the keel to right the boat. We sailed on and on, under reefed sails. At night, Roy ran the engine to smooth things out a bit. Less than 100 miles to go now.