Do you remember yesterday how I was complaining that the wind was “all from the wrong direction”, “dead down wind” and “slow”?
I take it all back.
Last night the wind started getting lighter and more shifty. All night we watched it closely, heading the boat up for speed when it got light, changing the course to accommodate the shifts, heading off the wind to get back to our course when the strength built up. Adjustments were made constantly to keep us moving forward. We had several close calls when we thought the wind was just gone and not coming back, but each time it recovered and we kept sailing.
Eventually around 4:00 a.m. the wind just gave up.
We’d been expecting this as a high pressure system was expected to pass through, but it was our hope it might take a little longer to get here and give us at least until daylight to make our sail changes and start motoring. No such luck.
The good news is that without wind you don’t have so many waves, so if you have to motor at least it isn’t through huge swells and steep chop. Just some annoying rolling which isn’t too bad as you get used to it.
A Day in the Life
As I post these I realize that I am frequently doing so at odd hours on places like the East Coast of the U.S. where most of my friends and family live in the Eastern Time Zone. We’re on the other side of the date line from the U.S. which makes it tomorrow – as I type this it is 11:30 AM on Wednesday, May 20th but in the states it is still Tuesday at 7:30 in the evening – a day behind, but in time of day EST is eight hours ahead of us. So to make it a little more clear what is happening when you are sitting down to dinner, sleeping or at work and why I sometimes send e-mails and blog post at 3:00 in the morning, here is a brief overview of our schedule, which ship’s local time in 24 hour notation, and the time on the East Coast of the U.S.
- 0600 (2:00 pm EST) – Danielle takes over the morning watch until people start getting up
- 0900 (5:00 pm EST) – Most everyone is up and away, having breakfast
- 1000-1400 (6-10:00 pm EST) – good time for radio propagation and sending e-mails. I will usually write blog posts and send e-mails around this time.
- 1400-1700 (10pm – 1am EST) – during the afternoon we share off watching in the cockpit, making lunch, sleeping, listening to audiobooks, etc.
- 1700 (1:00 am EST) – Typically when we have dinner, we try to do this before it gets dark as it is easier to prep and clean up.
- 1900 (3:00 am EST) – We get on a radio call with a few buddy boats that are traveling the same direction to check in and report positions.
- 1930-2000 (2:30 – 4:00 AM EST) – I may send a few more e-mails and try to download a weather update. At this point I generally lie down to get some sleep before my watch. Danielle will frequently head to bed around this time.
- 2100 – Midnight (5 – 8:00 am EST) – First watch, this is Will’s shift. Kathy goes to bed at 9:00 local and Will stays on watch by himself until I get up at midnight.
- Midnight – 0300 (8 – 11:00am EST) – Second watch, this is my (B.J.) watch.
- 0300 – 0600 (11 am – 2:00 pm EST) – Third watch, Kathy’s shift. She wakes Danielle up at 6:00 am and the cycle repeats.
As it gets warmer and the waves flatten out I will likely break the routine up a little more by fishing during daylight hours, but it is a fairly structured day.
When you are on watch at night you are the only one up, and you are not only looking out for other boats (pretty rare) but you are watching the wind, waves, and conditions and making changes needed to the boat trim. We try to minimize these changes and sail conservatively at night, as the last thing you want at night is someone going overboard doing unnecessary maneuvers. So we sail safe and conservatively when the sun is down, not taking a lot of risks. But the watch stander has to have the judgment to know the conditions and how to deal with them, and when it is time to wake someone up to help. This is important, as we have a rule that NO ONE, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES leaves the cockpit unless someone else is in the cockpit with them watching. So a minor sail change that requires something like easing a preventer line you want to have company on deck for.
As it sounds we have some fairly strict safety rules we follow on passages and off shore. A list of our off shore safety commandments might be a good topic for another post.
