Many years ago on a dark March in the Atlantic we were hit by a large wave on the beam – all went quiet as the yacht was rolled; luckily, I was in a quarter berth and woke up safely on the deck head. After a short while we rolled back upright leaving a badly bent mast and a shaken crew, with the helmsman having been washed out of the cockpit at the end of his tether and scooped back in again as we came upright. As you can imagine it was messy below, with the cooker dangling on the end of its rubber hose (I now always check the stove cannot come out of its gimbals).
It is water – not wind – that usually causes damage. In our case it was a long period of south-westerly winds building up a big sea followed by an active cold
