In this case, it was the former. Sea state had roughened up quite a bit and the boat was caught in a giant washing machine. There did not seem to be a dominant wave pattern. I couldn't see anything anymore but some white crest. There was spray everywhere and water washing the deck and the cockpit on a regular basis. My base layer was wet but being synthetic it warmed up quite a bit very quickly.
I had no idea about wind speed but given sail configuration and my experience during the qualifier with winds between 25 to 30 knots, I estimated at least 30 knots. The boat stayed on a loose beat all night to make the waypoint I needed to hit about 200 miles out.
The night was otherwise clear and starts appeared. The first three days of the race were sunny.
I was clipped in (like every time I would be on deck) and I wrapped my tether around the windward winch to avoid being thrown across the cabin and do a face plant on the leeward winch (which cost me a broken bone once). Skip had recommended doing this in his writeup and I thought that it was a great idea.
Every few minutes I'd have packs of water hitting my face, a couple made it down my spine. My waterproof gloves stayed waterproof only for a couple of hours. So much for Musto...
The stern or bow of the boat would be violently pushed by certain waves and would nearly round up. I wonder how the autopilot would manage to steer in these conditions. I hand steered as much as I could but actually enjoyed the ride. Strangely I really like heavy weather sailing.
Everything below was stashed tight and wasn't moving. I couldn't see any of the other competitors anymore so I focused on staying on course and on moving as fast as I could which was tough because of the waves. Elise would face walls of water which seriously slowed down her progress.
At around 1am (ship time was california time as it was easier to keep up with the people following the race and checkin times), I felt tired and decided to go below to sleep. I had set up Doomsday in adaptive mode. I turned on the AP and watched it for a few minutes. It seems to work ok. When the boat would be thrown off course by a wave, it would lose power as the sails fluttered and the AP could recover easily, helped by the next wave.
So I went down below, organized my inside cushions for the cabin sole, with my feet up on the settee and I fell sound asleep. I slept the rest of the night, woken up every hour or so by the sleep timer but only to find conditions unchanged, the boat on course and Doomsday doing a great job so I would go back to sleep - wet and tired. I hadn't eaten that evening because I wasn't feeling too great from a stomach standpoint. I didn't like staying below but lying down was ok and popping my head out and into the wind, or driving, would take care of my sea sickness. I threw up lightly a couple of times that night but there wasn't much to throw up but it wasn't enough to prevent me from sleeping.
Batteries were holding up even though the autopilot was eating up a shitload of power.
Dawn is early at that time of year so it came in fast. I looked around and saw streaks of white foam around me, perhaps up to 40 knots of wind? The boat was still balanced under the waves would allow it to be but thrown off balance quite violently by some higher and more violent waves hitting the stern.
I could not see any other boat.
On course. My mind was clear. Not racing but not in that reality I wanted a break from for a little while. Overall I was happy.
I figured that despite being completely drenched and somewhat seasick, I was not bleeding and had my wits about me, so that it would qualify as being alive, the conditions that had to be respected to press the checkin button on the Yellow Brick tracker so I checked in for the first time in the race.
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