Sailing Into a Storm: Liveaboard Sailing & Heavy Weather Practice (no turning back) Episode 100

What happens when you pull up anchor knowing a storm is coming—and sail straight into it anyway? In this episode of our liveaboard sailing adventure, we leave the safety of the anchorage and head directly into deteriorating weather as part of our real-world preparation for sailing around the world. Living aboard a sailboat full-time means learning to work with the weather, not just waiting for perfect conditions. As we hoist sails and turn into strengthening winds, this sail becomes an important heavy weather training session. We practice reefing early, managing sail trim, handling rough seas, and making calm, deliberate decisions when conditions are far from comfortable. This episode is about far more than rough seas and dark clouds. It’s about building confidence offshore, understanding how our sailboat performs in challenging conditions, and developing the skills every sailor needs before taking on long-distance cruising and bluewater passages. Whether you’re new to sailing or an experienced sailor, heavy weather is something all sailors eventually face—and learning how to prepare is essential. If you’re interested in liveaboard life, sailboat cruising, or preparing for ocean sailing, this video offers a realistic look at what it takes to get ready for full-time cruising and long-term travel by sailboat. We share honest moments from onboard as the weather builds, giving you an inside look at the decisions, teamwork, and seamanship required when sailing in less-than-ideal conditions. This channel follows our journey as liveaboard sailors preparing to sail around the world, sharing the highs, the challenges, and everything in between. From storm sailing and anchoring techniques to everyday life on a sailboat, we document the reality of choosing a life at sea. If you love sailing videos, sailboat adventures, liveaboard sailing, and traveling the world by sailboat, make sure to subscribe and join us as we continue preparing for our global sailing journey. Thanks for watching and welcome aboard! Each experience we have and each new sailing skill learnt just keeps bringing us closer to taking off to sail around the world in our Beneteau Oceanis 430 @SailingAstridTheWombat living our boat life dream. We hope you enjoy our content. Please hit subscribe and follow our journey to full time sailing around the world. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:44 Waking Up On Anchor 04:24 Anchor Up 04:55 Anchor Problem 06:43 Rain Washing the Sailboat 07:33 Sailing Into the Storm 09:04 Another Storm Coming 10:49 Storm Clouds Closing In 13:54 Storm Hitting the Sailboat 15:30 26 knots 16:00 32 knots 16:11 35 knots 18:05 Sustained 36 knots 19:50 Made it Through the Storm 21:02 Entering the Leeds 21:19 Docking 23:05 Engine Off Please leave a comment, like and subscribe to follow our journey. We are Gav and Shezz an Aussie couple with a dream to sail and scuba dive around the world. We bought our Beneteau Oceanis 430 in October 2023 with zero sailing experience but the belief that we can do this. We have filmed our journey from looking for boats, buying the boat and downsizing our house so we can liveaboard and all the messy wonderful life stuff in between. Join us now as we start to get our boat prepared for liveaboard life. As new sailors we want to share all of our learnings and keep it real in our videos. We want to show step by step what it takes to choose a boat, buy the boat and learn how to sail. Our sailing learning curve is steep so come along with us as we learn and grow as liveaboard sailors. We promise you will have a laugh! Welcome aboard Astrid The Wombat Gav and Shezz You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook: Sailing Astrid the Wombat #sailing #liveaboard #sailingaustralia #sailingadventures #sailboat