Excitement happens at night

As Paul woke me up for my 1 am watch, I had the feeling he was not ready to hit the sack. By the time I stacked on my last layer, I felt the boat moving and fast. Paul said the weather was starting to get squally and was debating if we should take in our light wind sail. As we started to chat about it a big white light appears on the horizon due north of us. Upon a closer look at the radar it was a ship 12 miles away and heading our direction. Paul was able to hail the captain on the VHF and we had a friendly chat. I guess we can't say we were two ships passing in the night, that is not our style. The ship passed with in 1.5 miles off our port (left hand side). We got the Ginniker sail in and Paul headed off to bed. Not even 15 minutes later and all hell broke loose. The wind kicked up and changed direction, the auto pilot was knocked off course, the boat was taking off and surfing waves over 10 knots and to top it off I started to see the lights of another boat....AUGH! PAUL!!!!! With Paul back at the helm and the wind gusting up we headed downwind and I reefed the main then got soaked by the downpour. Got back on course and guess what???? The wind died! HAHA. I guess mother nature wanted to make sure we were awake and on our toes tonight. Current course: 32'26 S 176'22 E.

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