Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

I look like a battered wife. All this rocking and rolling has led to numerous close encounters with tables, cupboards, seats, doors, bars and more. My thighs, hip and upper arms are covered in bruises. It reminds me of when Steve and I use to do karate. We use to practice on each other and unsurprisingly I would end up black and blue. Nowadays we fight verbally but I still blame him for my bruises. It was his idea to go sailing!

Day eight is another mile stone for me. Its the longest time I’ve been out at sea. This trip so far has been mentally and physically more challenging than any other. The eight day crossing from Costa Rica to the Galapagos was more like a childs ride at a funfair. The ocean was so flat and the wind so weak that we glided sedately over the water. This trip is more like a roller coaster ride. Lots of wind, swells, thrills, anxiety and exhilaration. Oh yes, and bruises.

Steve made us practice hand steering with only the compass today. He decided that if we lost power and all our instruments stopped working, we should still know how to steer to course. Well I’ve never really steered with a compass before. Previously I always had land marks to know which direction to point to. Out here in the middle of the ocean east,west, north and south looks the same. Anyway I found it much harder than I expected. The way the compass turns is not intuitive. If I want to head west, I have to turn the wheel towards the way east is showing on the compass. This completely does my head in. Its like steering with a tiller, you point away from the direction you want to turn. I’ve been known to go round and round in the dingy until I’ve worked out which way I have to point the tiller. Somehow Steve feels I need a lot more practice with my compass steering skill.

We saw a very large pod of dolphins. They didn’t come to visit and play with us. They were hunting. We saw a number of large fish jumping out of the water and spinning in the air like they were panicking and trying to escape. It was interesting to see the dolphins speed through the water. Many of them seem to form groups of three. Whether this is significant I don’t know. Another item on my list to look up when we get connected to the internet.

No fish today. Not even one that got away.

Sea, sky, clouds, sun, flying fish AND dolphin today. The usual stuff for most of the day but in the afternoon we saw a pod of very energetic dolphin in our neighbourhood. They weren’t interested in us. In the midst of them was a large fish of some sort leaping out of the water. At first we thought they were all feeding on the same unseen school of smaller fish beneath the water. The big fish leapt out of the water in a very wild fashion a couple of times then it all went quiet. On reflection we concluded the better explanation was that the dolphin were collectively hunting the big fish and we witnessed its dying struggles.

In the morning I acted as net controller for the barefoot net. Propogation was not that good so I couldn’t hear all the boats clearly and needed help from others. We may change the time as a result.

For most of the day the wind had shifted more to the east causing us to down wind sail for the first time. Helen liked it because it made things very smooth but John and I weren’t so keen as it dropped our boat speed. We still managed a 24 hour run of 150nm but that was not as good as nthe 160nm-170nm we’ve grown used to – all while keeping our drive and house battery banks topped up from the regen.

The winds were also lighter in the morning so I used it as an excuse to use the 3rd reefing line as an adjustable outhaul. Since we moved aboard our outhaul (the line that tensions the foot of the mainsail) has been fixed in a position optimising our mainsail for upwind sailing. With the recent beam reach sailing I rued my neglect and not doing this conversion earlier. With Helen awake I pulled in the boom and put the boat into a reach to prevent any boom swing and went atop the bimini to do the work. Helen in her wisdom decided the boat needed to be put back on course and headed back down wind again causing the boom to move around a lot which caused me no fun whatsoever working on the lines upstairs. I hope she wasn’t sub-consciously (or consciously for that matter) trying to kill me. The outhaul story will continue tomorrow as it chaffed through shortly after I took over from John at 5am but that story is for day 9. Got to have a little dramatic tension from time to time.

Apart from the little exceptions the days are much the same as the previous. However, as a result of our westward progress, the sun rises and sets ten minutes later each day which brings about a gradual change in eating habits with respect to our shifts. At the beginning of our passage the moon started off close to new giving us a few very dark nights in a row. Now it is growing to quarter moon and, by landfall, full. Each night it sets an hour or so later and becoming brighter each night changing the character of the early evening watches. As it progresses it will shine into each successive watch. Having a full moon at landfall gives us the possibility of a night time landfall if the sky is clear which will make the final two days planning much simpler.

Variety is the spice of life. Well there’s not much variety in our daily routine at moment. We do our watch, we sleep, we read, we eat and if we feel like it, we find a little chore to do. The scenery is much the same. Water water everywhere. The boys spend a lot of time staring out at their fishing line with hope and longing.

So to spice up each day with something varied, I cook up a different meal each evening. I rotate rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and noodle dishes. This is mix and match with either chicken, beef, fish and occasional pork. Sometimes we have none meat days and use eggs, cheese or beans as the main protein dish. Dishes range from stews, curries, chilis, sauces, stir fries, homemade pizzas, omelets etc.
Curries are always a favourite but I try not to cook it more than twice a week as I do not want to run out of spices too soon.

As you must have worked out, I’m the main cook while Steve and John takes turn as bus boy or washer upper. Being cook is probably the one job that keeps me the most busy. Not only do I prepare and cook each evening. I have to keep an constant eye on our provision. Every other day I have to inspect our fresh food, fruit and vegetable and turn them over to reduce rotting. Now that the fresh foods are beginning to run out I have to start growing my sprouts so that we have some form of fresh vegetable. We’re also on our last loaf of bought bread so soon its back to making our own bread each morning. An effort but smells and tastes delicious.

My night shift was a little more challenging. The wind shifted and to my delight we were down wind sailing, my preferred tack. As always, when I get what I want I discover a problem. The problem with down wind sailing is that you really have to keep and eye on how the wind shifts behind you. If the wind shifts suddenly to the other side it can cause the main sail to jibe. In quite strong wind the sudden swing of the sail and boom to the other side, can severely damage the mast and boat. After spending some time nervously and continuously looking at the wind instruments and adjusting our bearing I decided to put the boat on automatic wind vane. This keeps the boat at a constant angle to the wind so I set the angle wide enough not to jibe. There is a consequence to this. I now had no real control over keeping to our track. The wind would take us where the wind went. Fortunately and to John’s great relief when he took over watch, we were only a few feet off course.

Oh yes, a new record, we’ve done more than a thousand nautical miles.

What did we see today? Sea, sky, clouds, sun, flying fish. Familiar? A certain sense of deja vu here. And with confidence I shall predict more of the same ahead.

There were a few milestones today. We exceeded our maximum passage distance beating the run from Costa Rica to the Galapagos. We also passed the mark whereby we have less than 2,000nm to go. It feels like progress.

Thought I’d also touch on the subject of bruises. On a moving boat one always needs to make three points of contact to remain stable. When standing and using two hands one ends up putting ones hip against the counter top. It’s the same point every time. It’s the same point that you bump when walking around and losing balance then bumping into the counter. Even though we have rounded edges (a must for a cruising boat) the continuous knocks are bringing out gradual bruising which is slowly getting painful. The first few days I was not aware but now I am I have become more careful.

We also finally decided to move the dining table inside. As the wind has clocked around to aft of our beam, eating outside became problematical with the wind blowing food around and cups over. On a catamaran we delight in being able to sit at the table reasonably decently. Inside it’s a whole new experience. I wonder why we didn’t do it earlier.

Been feeling rather unwell all day. I’ve slept pretty much most of the day apart from my shifts.

Me and Steve fixed the uncomfortable back rest at the helm seat with some pillows and cable ties.

No fish.

I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think…..just want to rest again.

Hopefully I’ll feel better in 5 hours for my morning shift.