Fourteen roughest nights, part 2 of 2
November 24, 2025 · 23 min · 1K views · South Indian Ocean
What this video covers
A Pacific Seacraft 34 named Sea Change completes a solo circumnavigation's final seven roughest nights, spanning the South Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Cape of Good Hope, the South Atlantic doldrums, and the Bahamas. Night eight, day five of the Cocos Keeling–Rodriguez passage, brought sustained heavy wind crossing the 90 East Ridge, where depth shallowed from 15,000 to 5,000 feet and amplified seas; the boat ran dead downwind west-northwest for three hours with the jib furled to a handkerchief.▶ 4:18 Night nine struck the same passage ten days later with 25–30 knots forecast, confirmed by mare's tails the day before.▶ 4:57 Below Madagascar, a known acceleration zone, a broken windvane pulley line at 4 a.m. forced a switch from storm jib to a sliver of furled jib; the incident left unresolved whether the storm jib alone was adequate.▶ 12:51 Rounding Cape Agulhas and the Cape of Good Hope in late December required a quarter jib dead downwind.▶ 13:41 Leaving Cape Town in February 2025, two nights of shrieking wind in major shipping lanes produced repeated AIS alarms from ships within two miles, one of which ignored VHF calls.▶ 16:27 The Atlantic doldrums delivered 12 hours of squalls requiring hand-steering and a quadruple-reefed main.▶ 18:33 The worst night of the entire circumnavigation came near the Bahamas on June 25, 2025 — an unpredicted windstorm above 40 knots with no rain, forcing emergency furling of a flogging jib using a pre-rigged winch handle.▶ 21:18 Preserving sea room rather than running downwind proved critical when the storm's duration was unknown.▶ 20:43
Boats in this video
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