Did I say something about boring and slow night watches the other day? Maria's birthday didn't end quite as peaceful as we thought it would and I got an adventurous night watch ending up soaked wet with some bruises. After a late supper Maria and I discussed whether we should drop the extra headsail for the night or leave it up. The boat was balanced and we did good speed, but having to drop the sail and the spinnaker pole in the middle of the night if the wind would increase is a tricky maneuver that can be dangerous. Luckily, we decided to drop it at once. But it was already dark and the wind seemed suddenly to increase every minute and the disturbing waves grew bigger. Emelie and I was on foredeck trying to hand in the sail and struggled to get off the spinnaker pole. Maria was in cockpit to organize the sheets and a drowsy Catrine was called up on deck to grab the helm while we tried to solve the situation. The sheet was too tight for me to be able to get it of the attached pole but when Catrine head up to wind to loosen the forces the pole and the sail started moving uncontrollable creating other crazy forces. Emelie and I was forced to lay flat down on deck and I yelled at Emelie to seek protection in the cockpit. After having regained balance I eventually got off the pole from sheet. Finally we could drop the damn sail. Maria carefully dropped the spinnaker halyard while I tried to collected the headsail and prevent it from falling in the water and cause more devastating problems. Meanwhile Emelie was fighting the spinnaker pole and Catrine did her best at the helm. Sail down and halyard on the mast we dragged the sail to the cockpit and doing that I found myself close to man over board hanging in starboard cap shroud. I was secured with a safety harness from my life jacket to the jackstays on deck so if I would have lost my grip I would hopefully not have disappeared too far. However, even if the safety harness would have hold me it would be hard for the girls to get me over the rail and back to the boat. When I was on my way over board Maria just told me she was holding her breath back in cockpit. Falling over board is simply not an option onboard Cantare! But please don't worry back home, we had the situation under control and it was a good wake up call after some lazy sailing days without wind. Now we are prepared for a coming low that might hit us in the middle of next week! /First Mate