4am and time to wake up – after nearly four months of working in a watch system, there is still a little groan lurking somewhere within. In the past three days since leaving Noumea, we had made 130 miles, that’s an average speed of 1.8 knots. As you know already, helming the Plastiki in light winds can be a little frustrating. The ocean was incredible though, so calm you could see undisturbed films of whale poop floating by, but unfortunately no whales – even though Humpbacks are sure to be keeping us company here at this time of year.

The night felt eerie, aside from a band of lightning in the distant south, it is pitch black, with not a star for steering reference. The light wind was shifting around 35 degrees in the west from 275 to 240, we were trying hard to steer at a close angle to keep the apparent and therefore boat speed up. Looking at the digital displays for an hour with nothing to orientate you in the sky can play with your mind.

The wind picked up from a puff to 15 knots still swinging around, then gusts of 20 – ha ha, feels so good to be moving again.

Then bang! The wind is coming from the SSE, a sudden shift of over 100 degrees. And it is blowing – with 62 knots in the gust. The wind turned so quickly that the Plastiki went into accidental tack. Gusts of 62 knots with the head sail backed and the main on the opposite side than we were set up for. Therefore, the rig is not stayed properly, everything wanging around, with immense pressure pushing the rig to leeward without runners counter acting the force to windward. We had to work at reducing the loads quickly to ensure that the mast stayed up right.

‘Max, please will you wake the off watch’, I yelled as I ran to put the new runner on and ease the main onto the right side. Before no time, everyone was up with life jackets on and ready for action. And we had some great action.

All at once we needed to get the head sail down and three reefs in the main. Mat held onto the helm, while Max manned the sheets on the aft winches. Mr T, David, Vern and I on the foredeck, getting the head sail down, whilst starting to reduce the main. With all the guys clipped on to the foredeck, I eased the head sail halyard, there was so much pressure in the sail it took all their might to pull it down and into the boat. Just as it was nearly down the top two hanks blew off, leaving the head of the sail streaming aft. I grabbed it to work at undoing the halyard – the windage in just the 12 mm halyard in such a strong wind made the simplest job a mission. In no time the head sail was down and T and Vern were dragging it back into the cabin, while David and I worked at putting three reefs in the main. When you can hardly stand against the wind it makes it very tricky to climb up the mast to attach the reefing cringle, let alone pull the heavy sail down at the same time. Thank goodness David is so tall!

Within an hour we were all back by the helm, exhausted but with the adrenaline of adventure pumping. All of us commented on how four months at sea has taken a toll on our strength and overall fitness. The top of the 4m waves were blown flat with white spray spinning off, awesome. The sea resembled a snow blizzard. We all sat together wide eyed and big smiles, to take a breather. The boat was settled, a big tidy up was the next stage, with ropes everywhere, and the sail in the galley, but we felt good just under 3 reefs, riding the waves nicely.

The trough/front line that slammed into us was boosted by the line of storms that had been to the south throughout the night. It looked from the model that the strong SE winds would remain to our south, but that was clearly not the case! The model had a max of 30-35 kts, but it failed to get the dynamics of the front with the storms etc.

Gusts of 62 knots is a fair amount of wind for any boat, but certainly manageable especially as the sea state was not huge. However, in the Plastiki it is too much really – exciting and magical to experience though.

The srPET structure is a test bed and none of us really know how she will hold up – although we all feel confident and safe we are very attuned to her numerous noisy moans and groans as she flexes over the waves. It is wave height and formation that is the key, and not so much the wind, but the two go hand-in-hand. Andy Dovel and Andy Fox certainly designed and built a strong vessel, even though they had very little material science to base their work on.

Jo x