Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes: A thing, as the Bellman remarked, That frequently happens in tropical climes, When a vessel is, so to speak, 'snarked'.
It was hard work. The passage to Madeira should have taken 4 days. We took 8. At it's worst the gale was blowing directly from where we wanted to go. With winds over 30 knots the boat was not going to point high enough to make any head way at all. When this happened we hove to, loosing about 20 miles for a 10 hour break. And break was the word here. We lost overboard or broke, 1 clevis pin, a wooden spoon, two socks, a sponge, 2 buckets, 2 winches, and the night instrument light circuit shorted out, rendering us without lights at night for the compass, wind direction and log. Depicted is the boom vang jurry rigged after the fitting on the boom came off. I wouldn't say we were well and truely snarked but it was begining to feel like it!