Storms and Pirates
Most people have no idea what it’s like to be out on the ocean away from their comfortable lifestyle here in the United States. Back in the early 1970s, though, My wife, Kitty, and I spent four years circumnavigating the globe on our 30ft Allied Seawind ketch, Bebinka.
Before we left, friends would ask, “You are going to sail across oceans in a 30ft boat! Aren’t you afraid of storms?” But we’d never been much afraid of storms, because on our home waters of Long Island Sound whenever the wind started to blow, we would simply heave-to and ride out the bad weather. Then came the day of July 14, 1974, midway between Cape Hatteras and Bermuda and only 500 miles from completing the voyage, when we were caught in a fearsome storm and finally understood why others were always so concerned about such things.
When the wind started to come up, we hove-to. But a few hours later, as the wind continued to build, the roar became deafening as the wind-speed indicator pegged out at 70 knots, and we took all sails down and lay ahull. We became lulled by the apparent calm with which was riding out the storm,
