So many times people ask crews on long sea passages “don’t you get bored!” The vision clearly is that once you have set the autopilot all you do is eat, take watch and sleep!
Comments like “I hope you have lots and lots of books to read” amplify this notion.
Nothing could be further from the truth as you are running your own tiny Principality, concerned with waste disposal and management, water making and monitoring, electrical generation and power management, laundry and ironing sheets and clothes, cleaning decks, cabin and galley (Nautical term for Kitchen), food store monitoring of fresh fruit and vegetables, turning over eggs daily, catching fish, filleting and barbequing, baking bread daily, monitoring deep frozen stocks and using oldest stock, changing and reefing sails, recording ship’s log every hour, writing this log, entering pages onto the ship’s website (www.asolare.co.uk), communicating with the rest of the fleet by VHF and SSB radio and checking that everybody’s OK and recording every yacht’s position, sending daily position to World Cruising in Cowes, helping in sea rescues when called upon, administering cold cures, sickness cures, stomach upsets and toothache tablets, and the biggest and most enjoyable “task” of all, making and eating sumptuous meals enjoyed with great wine – the washing up is done by a dishwasher!
Hence two day’s logs in one!!!
At sea, well away from land we get amazing sun rises and sunsets, together with stunningly clear night skies with more stars than you ever have seen before.
Today’s photo is of me on the pulpit bow seat at sunset where we had been watching about 12 dolphins leap and cavorting around the bow at the end of Day 4.
Serenity was interrupted in the evening of Day 4 when I was awakened with the noise of rapidly increasing wind strength. I knew that this meant potential damage to the rig which was set for very modest winds that were forecast to reduce if anything. I donned my lifejacket and was just coming up on deck when Disaster struck again!
The very sturdy Genoa came falling down into the sea on the starboard side as its halyard had parted. We struggled to get it back on board as the wind continued to increase. It was a race against time as the large gennaker was being overpowered on the port side. We partially released the sheet and halyard for the gennaker as we struggled with the Genoa. We eventually got it back on board. By now the wind was gusting to 45 knots and we tried hard to furl the gennaker but the wind was far too strong and this in a completely clear night with no rain or squalls that could have accounted for the very sudden and rapid increase of wind speed. We lost the battle and the halyard for the Gennaker parted and the sail fell down the port side into the sea. With the rapid slowing of the yacht still, however, doing 7 knots under bare poles, it was relatively easy to pull it back on board. The photo shows the calm conditions and the two actual sails and that went into the sea only hours after the photo was taken. It is going to be a slower passage to Panama now as we cannot launch any downwind sails and we also do not have a head sail any longer!
A good hot shower followed by a good sleep prepared us for all the duties and activities scheduled for the next day as listed above!!!
Capt. Peter
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