Of course. But for the most part they are just an uncomfortable ride. Seriously, I pinkie swear, they were not scary.

Until Fiji…

This has been our only passage where we really weren’t sure what was going to happen. The wind hit 52 knots, the waves reached over the height of our second set of spreaders, and we didn’t know quite what to do if it got worse. Micah and Seth had furled the headsail down to Kleenex size and we were still ripping down waves at 16 knots. Seth was stuck in the cockpit (the first time he’s ever harnessed himself to the boat) hand-steering for 6 hours while Micah and I passed him sandwiches. Surprisingly enough, inside the boat we couldn’t really tell how bad things were outside. Until we opened the door and caught waves, sideways rain and 50 +knots of wind in the face. Some days I’m glad to be the cook.