An excerpt from Sheila in the Wind

By Adrian Hayter. First published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1957, Sheila in the Wind returns as a nostalgic production with new photos and an introduction by Rebecca Hayter, published by Lodestar Publications, UK.

By dusk on the second day it was blowing gale force, and still increasing. Sheila lay hove-to under storm canvas, but at 9 that night I struggled to take it in before the still rising wind tore it to shreds or pulled out the stick. Sheila felt easier thereafter, steadied (without being over-burdened) by the tremendous wind in her rigging, and the only discomfort came with occasional breakers against which no small ship has protection.

Dawn came slowly through the sense rain, but at 10 a.m. the screaming wind stopped suddenly, the sky cleared overhead into bright sunshine, and we lay in the centre of the cyclone, enclosed by a huge, beyond-horizon wide circle of black clouds under which the storm still raged. There were only faint puffs of wind, but the seas were gigantic, rushing into each other, lifting into tall top-heavy triangles and flopping back to cause more trouble. I could do nothing to steady Sheila without wind, the un-rhythmic tossing and battering placing terrible strains upon her; during that day the eye of the storm slowly passed over us and the other rim approached.

We entered the other side just after dark that night, and flew east before the screaming rush under bare poles. It eased to gale force near midnight when I got on storm canvas, and replaced this just before dawn (when the wind eased further) by the closely reefed main and storm jib. I reckoned we covered 100 miles in the next fifteen hours, and at times when Sheila was lifted high on a crest and full force of the wind hit her, she was flung far over on her side until half the sail was flat in the water. It was bad seamanship to sail so hard in such weather; the short rations impelled it, but it imposed the great strains and discomfort that bad seamanship always does. And so I had my cyclone.

Sheila in the Wind by Adrian Hayter

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