This is what sailing looks like in calm weather with a good following wind. The ship hardly pitches, responds well to the helm, everything's smooth.

During our night watch it was a completely different story: it's dark, visibility is zero, there's pouring rain, lightning flashing, huge waves, wind gusts constantly pushing the ship off course, and the helm response is often super slow or doesn't come at all (currents and wind throw in their own adjustments).

In bad weather, the cost of a mistake goes up too: drifting off course makes the pitching worse, and if you catch the wind at the wrong angle, you can even damage the sails. Plus it's harder to get back on the right course afterwards.

With modern navigation it's so much easier: the autopilot does everything for you :)