I left Port Orford about 1030 with all good intentions to sail non-stop to Eureka California.

Early afternoon I was sailing with a double reefed main and a reefed jib in about 18 kts of breeze and as Fairtide was sailing along nicely I thought I could get in a nap. About 20 minutes into my nap I heard a loud crash, the wind had increased in to the mid to high 30 kts with sustained gusts over 40 kts and waves exceeding 12 ft. Apparently I was hit by a wave which pushed the boat enough to cause an accidental gybe. The force of the gybe broke the shackle between the blocks for my second reef driving one block forward and jamming it at the forward end of the boom. The aft block was now free and let the back of the sail (the leech for sailor types) to belly out. To add insult to injury, the gybe also broke my lazy jacks making it difficult to contain the sail on the boom when I finally was able to drop it.

I knew I needed to get to somewhere with less wind, but I was over 5 miles off shore and over 15 to the nearest port. At first I tried to get close to shore to a shallow bay hoping the wind might not be as bad. No luck! The next option was to make for Brookings about 15 miles away. Hand steering for the almost 3 hours it took to get to Brookings was exhausting, but when you're a solo sailor you do what you have to, tired or not. Fortunately I arrived in Brookings about five in the evening and as luck would have it the bay outside of the harbor was quite protected from the wind and I was able to anchor in about 25 ft of water with wind less than 5 kts. In less than an hour I dropped the main, tied in the third reef, pulled up the anchor and was back on my way to Eureka.