Monday, October 16, 1995 - Venezula, On way to Isla Margarita

We motorsailed all night, and then turned off the engine to conserve fuel and tried to sail southeast to Puerto Caranero. The wind was southeast, 10 to 15, so we had to go considerably west of our destination. Then we made a ninety-degree turn and tried to tack northeast to gain some easting, but after a couple of hours, we realized we were blowing northwest instead of northeast, so we turned southeast again and started the engine. This time, we were able to follow our course towards Puerto Caranero. The sky was overcast, and when darkness fell, the sky was brilliantly lighted by lightning. I was on watch shortly before eleven when the wind suddenly increased and shifted direction. The staysail was luffing badly, so I reduced speed. Roy immediately woke up and came up to the cockpit to find out what was wrong. I told him about the wind and the staysail. He started to bring in the staysail, forgetting that he had attached a cable to it to make it easy to shift from one side to the other. When he was unable to furl the sail, he remembered the cable and went out on the fore deck without his life-vest -- a major no-no. The wind was howling and the boat pitching and rolling. The loosened headsail was flagging like crazy, while Roy struggled to control it so he could remove the cable. I was scared to death he'd be knocked overboard or be seriously injured by the cable, but there was nothing I could do except stand there, holding the staysail sheet as Roy had told me to. He hadn't even realized that he didn't have his vest on when he went out there. He was plenty scared, too. Once he slipped and fell backwards, but somehow he eventually got the cable off and returned safely to the cockpit. Then he finished furling the staysail, put his life-vest on, and lowered the main. After that, the boat was much easier to control. While Roy was lowering the main, an alarm started going off. I didn't know if it was the radar alarm or the low-voltage alarm or the depth alarm or what, but I couldn't investigate because I had to hang on to the wheel. When Roy came back into the cockpit, he thought it was the depth alarm, but when he checked, that wasn't it. He went down to the main and checked a bunch of stuff but couldn't find the source of the alarm, so he took the wheel and told me to go below and see if I could find it. It turned out to be Roy's alarm clock!