Abstract. This work studies the impact of wind on extreme wave events, by means of numerical analysis. A High Order Spectral Method (HOSM) is used to generate freak, or rogue waves, on the basis of modulational instability. Wave fields considered here are chosen to be unstable to two kinds of perturbations. The evolution of components during the propagation of the wave fields is presented. Their evolution under the action of wind, modeled through Jeffreys' sheltering mechanism, is investigated and compared to the results without wind. It is found that wind sustains rogue waves. The perturbation most influenced by wind is not necessarily the most unstable.