About Time

First though, a word about Days and how we’re counting them.

We left the Galápagos on May 15, 2014 at 1300 local time (1:00 P.M.) which is also 1900 UTC – 7:00 p.m. at Universal Coordinated Time, which used to be known as Greenwich Mean Time before the days of atomic clocks.

Timekeeping on a trip like this is a little odd, as we are crossing several time zones. Since we are crossing an area wider than the United States we are likely covering three, maybe four time zones. Some day we will cross the International Date Line but for now we will avoid THAT confusion.

So we tend to speak in UTC as well as local time. Our clocks, watches, computers, navigation equipment etc are all set to the same local time where we just were at anchor in this case the Galapagos. We will maintain this Local Time throughout the passage, attempting to change hours as we cross from time zone to time zone would confuse watch schedules, logs, and people in general. Of course now the sun comes up at 0700 and it gets dark earlier. UTC has the advantage of never changing so it is a convenient common time for dealing with those in other zones.

We sailors also tend to favor 24 hour or military time. Why? It’s not just pretension; it is to eliminate any ambiguity in things like logs and deduced reckoning positions (Dead Reckoning we call it, though it is more correctly Ded. Reckoning). If someone leaves the a.m. or p.m. off a position report it makes the report useless if a twelve hour clock is in use. So these sorts of navigational records are always done in 24 hour time.

Just as an aside, when I learned this years ago I decided to only way to get fast and comfortable with a 24 hour clock was to force myself to use it. So I drove Kathy and the kids nuts by changing every clock that I could into 2 hour format my watch, phone, car, appliances and so on. So people would look at our kitchen stove and wonder why at said 19:00 on itlong explanation!

So when cruisers are communicating and planning we tend towards UTC times in a military format. When we plan our nightly net of the boats that are out here together it is for 0230 UTC which translates to 2030 local Galápagos time, or 8:30 p.m. in the time we are operating atcurrently.

Of course this lengthy and marginally coherent discussion goes back to the original topic of How Many Days Have We Actually Been Out Here. Since we left at 1300 local time (1900 UTC) we have not actually been out here Six Full Days even though I am blogging this as day six. As I write this (1820 local time, 0020 UTC) we’ve actually been sailing for five days and about seven hours; hardly six days. Although we have been on the boat for part of six days since we left, ergo it is Day Six even though Day Six isn’t done until lunch time tomorrow.

Mostly this is a little point about how far we’ve come and how fast and how long the passage takes. In about another three hours we will log out 1,000th mile on this trip, in about 5 days and ten hours we will be roughly 1/3 of the way done with this trip. Extrapolating that out, if conditions hold that works out to about 16 days and six hours to cover 3,000 miles. IF conditions hold wind, waves, and weather; I’m not making any claims!

The most salient point in all of this is that after 6 days and 1,000 miles in order to know 1) what day of the trip it is and 2) what day of the week it isI need to look it up. Fortunately yesterday’s blog post has the Day of the trip and the computer has the time. It all becomes a blur out here as the days are not so different one from the next.

Fish Mayhem, Part I

The other day I talked about the fish and squid that litter our deck in the morning and how we do not want them to hit us. Today, apparently we sailed through a mysterious Zone of Really Stupid Fish.

While Kathy and Will were on watch this morning in broad daylight Kathy went up to clear the decks of last night’s uninvited guests (fishy count: 4 flying fish).

Shortly after she got back to the cockpit Will got smacked by a flying fish. Yes, in broad daylight one of these stupid things managed to launch itself into the water and NOT avoid the rather largish white moving object that wasn’t more water. It wasn’t painful, but much hilarity ensued as Will and Kathy tried to catch this slippery live fish that was now flopping around under Will’s feet in the cockpit.

During this escapade another fish managed to trap itself on the deck that Kathy had just cleared. In broad daylight.

I admit I was a tower of self control and did not laugh out loud even once until it was all over.

More Fish

Today is also the day we got more serious about fishing. With the disruption of the schedules from the autopilot failure I’ve not been as keen to throw a line over board. A Fish On drill is generally an All Hands drill; someone needs to reel in the fish, and the boat must be slowed which involves course changes and sail trimming. And finally there is the requisite supporting gear to be organized cleaning knives, a tarp, gaff hooks and so on. My designated job is generally to strap on the fighting belt and reel the thing in, Will usually handles the helm work. Danielle helps with lines and Kathy gets the support gear together.

With the watch schedule we are running it is rare that all four people are now awake and alert in the cockpit. When the first fish hit this afternoon we had one crew sleeping and one in the head when the line started peeling off the reel. Much shouting and arm waving ensued before we final brought the beast to bay a very nice three foot Mahi-Mahi which we devoured with relish for dinner tonight.

The second Fish On! had me sound asleep in the cockpit with earplugs in while Kathy was again trying to sleep and the kids were in the cockpit listening to music as Will drove the boat. Apparently I didn’t hear them yelling at me over Stevie Ray Vaughn’s excellent cover of Voodoo Child and hey had to shake me awake.

Again with the leaping and running about, and we brought another beautiful Mahi Mahi of similar size up to the boat. Unfortunately I didn’t try and gaff it and our freezer fish shook out the hook as I was hauling it out of the water.

Fishing out here is good, but it is a little scary. There are some SERIOUS fish out here in these waters, and a 100 lb. (or 200 lb., 300 lb. and so on) tuna is quite willing to strike the same lure as I use to catch an eight pound Mahi. Same for things like Marlin and other huge fish like that pestilential Sailfish I caught on the way to Panama.

I have absolutely no idea what I will do if something that large grabs my lure., I can’t even figure how I’d get it on board. When I was shopping for a boat rod my mentality was If I can’t get it in with 80 lb test I don’t want it anywhere near the boat and this is still the case!