Don't let the weather get you down!

The last few nights have been rough. One day recently we set our record distance of 154 miles in a 24 hour period, but that was an arduous task. The rain, swells, and sometimes weird gusty winds pick up at night and make us look forward to the sunrise more and more with each passing hour.
While you are living these moments, they are pretty much the worst ever experienced in your life. But in the morning, after eating some breakfast and looking back at what happened, the truth is it isn't all that bad. Like last night we made the mistake of keeping the spinnaker up far longer than what was comfortable for the conditions: the wind had really, really picked up. I mentioned before that you can reef a sail to decrease its surface area, keeping the boat moving but still manageable in stronger winds. Well, that's true of the headsail and the main, but not the spinnaker! The kite is attached at three points, and is constantly exposed to the wind coming behind you, dragging you forward--so you can see that if this goes crazy, the spinnaker will either cause you to careen around like a maniac, flip your boat on its side, or totally tear itself into pieces. There is no way to reef this kind of sail, it just has to come down IMMEDIATELY.
So, when I was napping before my shift on the helm, and Jon told me what had to be done, I noticed the strain in his voice. This was not going to be fun. I started steering so that he could go up and gather the kite as soon as two of those three connection points had been doused. The plan was to shove the sail as quickly as possible down the hatch that leads to our V-berth (room with a V-shaped bed at the bow) without losing the sail into the ocean, flinging Jonny overboard with it into the ocean, or letting the lines whip around like crazy and maybe tangling in other gear. Good times, right?
The steering was so overpowered it was squirrely. Every touch to the helm sent us flying in that direction. At one point, Jon was standing on the side rail and his toes were in the water! He doused his connection point, I doused mine, and luckily the kite flew off slightly to the right of the bow. It reminded me of seeing an untied, full balloon being let go and zooming around until it empties of air and drops. Oh, except this "balloon" is three stories tall and attached to the boat. Jon shoved the mess down the hatch, along with five gallons of saltwater, on top of our bed.
We learned our lesson. We are going to invest in a spinnaker sock as soon as we get to Hawaii. This is exactly what it sounds like, a sort of sock tucked at the top of the spinnaker. When you pull a line, it drops, and swallows the kite on the way down. No fuss, no people on deck, no stress! Also, as soon as we start to see signs of too much wind, the kite is coming down that instant!
Then the nonstop rain...it gets old. So do the wacky washing machine swells that we are getting hit with from every direction. I realize we are only a few days out (only 400 miles to go!) but it's pretty hard sometimes to stay positive. But the more I think about sailing Hawaii on our own boat for the next 5 weeks allows me to keep my head up. Also, when I dream about the first big breakfast I order at Ken's House of Pancakes with two extra sides of bacon, that always brings a smile to my face!