The Day the Wind Increased
Part 3
Safety
This is paramount and we all have to look after each other and the boat. We therefore have a load of safety equipment on board. I have previously mentioned lifejackets and lifelines and when they are worn and used. We have a load of man overboard equipment, including, life rings, throwlines, inflatable rings and man overboard slings to get people back if they go overboard. We check each day that these are all in their designated positions and is part of the daily checks.
We have flares, collision flares, what is called an EPIRB (an emergency beacon) which is registered to the boat and will alert the satellites as to our position and what boat we are. We have distress buttons on our radios (however the range is only about 50nm – not that helpful in a large ocean) and a SSB radio which can send a distress call worldwide. We have two satellite phones from which we can make calls and Starlink which provides internet when on. We have a fire procedure for what we do in the event of a fire and so everyone knows where the extinguishers are and other fire equipment. We have a flood procedure for what to do in the event of a flood or ingress of water and various equipment to block holes etc. We have a heavy weather procedure for what preparations we make in the event of heavy weather and a drogue deployment procedure should we need to deploy the drogue. This is a line which has about 180 little parachutes on to slow the boat down and to keep the bow into the waves. In the unlikely event we have to abandon ship we have a life raft for up to 8 with rations in it for over 24 hours. It sits on deck and inflates when in water or when we pull the inflation line. We have a procedure for this and have made up grab bags with what we need should we abandon ship which we can take with us quickly in an emergency.
Weather and Passage Planning
We generally check the weather twice a day so that we are prepared for the conditions. Whilst we can check weeks ahead really the next few days are important and which dictate our route. We have paper charts and electronic charts on the plotters. Whilst we have a plan in advance this may change subject to the conditions. We can use Starlink for this information through Predict Wind or either satellite device. We therefore review and agree our plan for the next few days at least twice a day. We also particularly consider what should be our sail plan at night.
I hope the last few days has given you a feel for the things we conider and do to run the boat.
Today
In the night we were making good speed and it felt to me a bit like a toboggan ride with the swishing of the water down the sides and an occasional kick left or right from a wave. The day started a little cloudier and there was more wind and you could see it on the surface of the water. We had a good breakfast of bacon and eggs. We were cracking along and making the miles, which was good. We checked the weather and it was pushing us further south to avoid lighter winds and a wind hole to our Northwest. This was annoying as we wanted to turn more west and each time we looked at the weather it has changed a little. For now we agreed to continue south but gybed so that we were on a starboard tack again. We can only really at present plan ahead a day or two ahead. We started to see a bit of Sagrasso weed which comes down from the Sagrosso Sea in the north part of the Atlantic and it is a sign we are getting nearer. We also saw more flying fish but none have landed on deck yet. Mark and Ian tried fishing but we were going too fast and sometimes the Sagrasso weed was being caught on our lines. At 12.00noon we put our clocks back another hour so that is the second time we have done this. So we now run on GMT-2 and we will have two further time changes on this trip.
We therefore had great fast sailing most of the day and were hitting 10 kts at times surfing down the waves which were a bit bigger. Keith decided to bake some more bread and also made a carrot cake (made from the last of our carrots which were now going off. Just before dark the wind got up even further and we had 26 kts in a gust. We therefore decided to take the Red Baron down which took a number of us. We replaced it with the main (mainsai) and Genoa (front sail) and were soon more in control. This proved to be the right decision as the wind continued to gust at a similar level. It enabled us to enjoy our supper of mince stew and pasta followed by a delicious slice of carrot cake and icing sugar prepared again by Keith. It appears that we are in for a rocky and rolly night.