Part 3 Sailing Las Palmas – Santa Maria, Cape Verde

Nov. 14^th 2010

The wind is straight from our back here, having the main sale to port side and the front sail to starboard side. With this sail position  you got to keep "your tongue right in the middle of your mouth!;) 

Waking up at 08.45 gave me 3 hours of sleep which together with 2 hours I had earlier in the evening summed up to the total of 5 hours. You can feel by opening the eyes that they have not got the rest they were longing for. But for a few days you can keep up concentration and mood with less sleep. Over a longer period it definitely will affect you in a negative and non pleasant way. We were looking forward to a more calm weather and most of all smaller waves which could extend our hours shift and thereby also the hours to rest. According to wind and waves this morning it certainly looked like that. It was lovely cruising weather and after some sandwiches I took over the command at 10.30. Skipper was after the ship disturbance last night naturally rather sleepy so I didn’t see him until the agreed coffee time at 15.00 hours. At that time the coffee/cappuccino ceremony always starts with some sweets if available. Today even Sheilah got words on her lips, so clearly more than 2 days on the sea which also now was calmer resulted in the improvements.

In the evening I had some of the lovely rye bread again with lever pate – still no one else seemed to be really hungry which surprised me cause quite amazing how good simple food can taste in these conditions in addition to the 24 hours sea and fresh air. Maybe another beautiful sunset made it kind of unforgettable:

Gunnar talked me into having a rest at 20.30 and I didn’t wake up until midnight 3 1/2 hours later when the almighty whistle reached my ears and beamed me from sweet cozy planet dream to rough bumpy planet earth with a blink of an eye.  
The weather situation had changed. Neptune – King of Seas – was not in a good mood and was showing his furious teeth in the big waves that now were reaching 3-5 meters in altitude and bumped into Sheilah CV that made some major rolling… one hand for you and one for the ship was fundamental if you didn’t want to hurt yourself or get thrown out.

 The wind had increased to 15-20 m/s which is categorized as hard wind. In these conditions I extended my life west with a life line which in the event of me going overboard would secure my attachment to her.
It must be every sailor’s nightmare to come up to an empty cockpit after hours of sleep. If your partner fell overboard that poor person can be many miles away – out of sight, drifting and possibly gone forever… Not acceptable! Security measurements like being hooked to a life line is crucial.
 
I must admit that I in the beginning of the journey not even had a life west on. It’s not regulation but of course advisable for your own security. An incident with the beam made me carry life west all possible times. As I was standing on the starboard side of the ship the beam suddenly rolled over to my side. It was a non controlled shift of side which having the wind in from the rear is at risk. I just remembered that I saw the beam coming towards my forehead and the only instinctive reaction I apparently had time to handle was closing my eyes… The next thing I remembered was the BANG! I could open my eyes again and breath out. It had stopped just some 30 cm from my head. Gunnar had due to the risk with this wind and waves tightened the beam up with extra robes. If this had not been done I most probably would not have been able to pass this sailing experience to you... With the beam landing on my forehead, I would have been knocked out in the “pool”… unconscious.
The wind in the sails has an unbelievable power. You just got to watch out especially when you feel safe. Mother Nature is the master at all times and you will have to respect her. So from that moment I wore a life west whenever in the cockpit or on deck.    
  

This night was different than the first two nights. This was really bringing the gear, the sails and the navigators to the test. And in the dark everything seems worse. Every time I had the energy to it, I watched my back to try and prepare for the next big swell. A few times this got me really frightened! These black shadows were coming towards me like big monsters with a height that way passed the boat and my height together and I thought a few times – boy, its over – you did good my friend, but know it’s time to get wet – really wet. I guess also the dark side of you anticipated that at some point a mega wave would strike and take you down (isn’t there a movie about this?;)
It never came. The Captain could later calm my mega wave scared part of the brain that the giant wave does not exist. Wind, temperature and current physics does not allow one wave to be so much bigger than average under normal conditions not talking about tsunamis or hurricanes of course. A true relief.

Anyway this shift was a full time job round the hour. The heading was 210 but these big waves could easily change your compass course by 30 degrees. This would bring you in one of the following situation:

1.       Going to the starboard side the beam risked flipping uncontrolled to the other side since the sail then would be fed by wind from the other side of the rear end. Not an option if avoidable.

2.       Going to the port side the boat would get the wind more directly on the side of the sails which will make the wind much stronger in the sails and the speed would pick up considerably. The trouble was that it was not the correct course and it was hard to steer and change course once you reached this “sidewind”.

Neither option would really make you a happy sailor here. The situation was frustrating and you had to keep concentration forcing contra steering with every wave. Taking a zip of water or glimpse of the stars would jeopardize the control and if you didn’t gain it till next wave you could be so much lost. In the beginning I was very impressed by the major power the waves possessed and compared the wild ride on the wave with a free ride in an amusement park! Soon these thoughts drowned. After a few hours of “playing” and the waves just seemed bigger and more powerful with some actually “jumping” into the cockpit and you could hear the boat, the wood in the saloon, the mast, the sails was at full pace – reaching top speed of the sailboat of probably 8 knots (15 km/h). It was a tough fight to keep control so the remaining hours of the shift was not funny.

On top of this wild sailing condition a light way back behind me had caught my attention. One hour later it was still same place and size. I came to the conclusion that it was a star but decided however to connect it to other stars in the area just to be 110% sure. Half an hour later it had moved away from the other stars pointed out! The “star” proved to be a ship. The next I see is the red port light and since it was coming from my port side he was moving in our direction… and it kept coming closer. I was shifting between handling waves and keeping an eye on the movements of that vessel. Could it be following us – was it pirates? There had been reports about pirates on this side of Africa’s coast. 

This might "enlighten" you as to how the light is placed on a ship to determine directions at night

Being almost behind me it still had the side with the red light towards me and I knew the second I would see both red and green light (steering direct at us) would be the second I would blow the whistle to wake up Gunnar to alert him of the situation. Since it seemed that the vessel came from north east going south west I decided to change course to south east just to see the reaction. This also gave me the boost of the wind from the side and I felt that we almost were flying; nobody messes with me! Not even the pirate ship seemed to care of my drastic tactics it just kept going steady on the course and soon it passed on my starboard side with the engine and outline proving it was just another cargo ship.

I had enough action for this night and was relieved when I finally could blow the whistle and wake up Gunnar for his turn.

I stayed up a bit in the cockpit afterwards, just to calm down and making sure we didn’t need to take some of the sails down. My wrist watch indicated that the time was 06.00 and surely rest was needed. I hardly remember that I laid my head on the pillow…

Sucking up a new sunset before sleeping for a couple of hours and a new night shift

Stay tuned for the next episode very soon!