Part 4, Sailing Las Palmas – Santa Maria, Cape Verde.

Nov. 15^th 2010

The boats get lifted yet another time by a big wave - this one with just one tooth. 

The sound of the boat in the waves and the rolling in my cabin woke me up after just 2 hours of rest at 08.15. I guess waking up in the middle of a dream makes it easier to remember them: I was given a tour of a brand new sports stadium but all the chairs and tables for the spectators were made of concrete – a regular Flintstone theme. To make it even weirder, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie showed up. I got these three headwords out of it; athletic challenge, fun and glory. I definitely could agree with the challenge in fighting these waves and getting no sleep but the two remaining headwords… Maybe they were to come! Or should I just spice the day up with these remaining ingredients…

Well I did not have too much time to figure it out – I had to finish my breakfast; cornflakes with honey and lukewarm milk. Since we only could charge the batteries during the day with the solar panels installed in the boat, we had to safe power in the night. The fridge was one of the “luxuries” that had to be turned off leaving only lights and water pumps as the power consumers whenever night or cloudy. Both used with caution and respect.
Fresh water was something else that was to be treated as gold. We had three categories: drinking water (purest 24 carat gold) fresh water not drinkable (like a jewelry where only the surface is real gold) and salt water (make it a plastic ring with a yellow color to it, bought in a Chinese store). This “level 3” water was used for everything where water quality was not an issue like dishwashing. Washing yourself or cloth in this water will result in some sticky feeling when drying (Like when drying after a swim in the salty water – a fresh water rinse is great). Body or cloth wash was the job of the not drinkable level 2 water. Anyway washing yourself - spot washing - in these rolling weather conditions was not an easy job. Sitting on the toilet with some level 2 water in a small blue plastic pot (I figured it was new and using it for my first time I really hoped nobody had used it for pissing or worse when I was pouring water in my head) with one hand in the micro wash basin to keep balance in the tiny toilet, left you with just one hand to pour water in your head or wherever washing was needed… I will not come with further details here as you probably already have way too many not comfortable images in your mind. 

The small toilet with the blue pot that became the spot wash item

What I wanted to stress here is that it really makes you wonder. You realize how freaking spoiled we are in our everyday life with what seems to be unlimited resources of water and power apart from the high level of comfort we especially in the western world enjoy – often without even paying attention to it! So please make sure you appreciate it more often (you are a spoiled kid man!;) – These valuable resources are to be enjoyed and used with respect every day. 

In psychological terms all these comforts should be remembered to count in as a big plus in the mind, so if the bus is five minutes late or some clouds are on the sky, life is still good and not “in minus” if you get my drift. All too often we worry about small things.

…

The spot washing made me feel much better – like two hours of sleep right there! And when I from the rest of the crew got confirmed that nobody had used the blue pot at all it just added the value of one more hour of sleepJ

I took over the wheel at 10.30 to 15.00 trying to keep the compass at 240 degrees. According to the GPS we were a little out of the optimal straight line (215) to the island of Sal where Santa Maria is located in the south, so we were trying to compensate for that.
 
The big swells were still very bad and combined with the hard wind it was a mixture that would not give many resting seconds on a shift. It was hard work and the numerous days with limited sleep was wearing the captain and me down. We were the only able to navigate the sailing boat but we could not go on like this. We had to change tactics to keep up with this forceful environment.  Therefore we decided to take two steps. The front sail had to come down (rolled in) which would make us less sensitive to the hard wind and give us better steering in the big waves. Secondly we had to shorten the shifts to three hours, meaning three hours work and three hours restitution. I hated the thought that the sleep now would be cut further up in pieces but on the other hand three hours of wave fighting with our tired mind and bodies was already on the limit.  

The image taken from the saloon is not very clear but gives an idea about the size of the waves rolling in. Much taller than us... 

    

I made some noodle soup which was my first hot meal in four days – it was truly delicious and I caught myself licking the damn noodle cup, like a dog – it tells how needed and good it was:)
Then my time was up – it was already 18.00 hours. A new rendezvous with the big waves. They did not seem to give up. It was like a primitive animal. A beast. I had already been singing on my shifts, now I started talking but no worries. It was not talking to myself. I was talking to Neptune;) At first it was remarks to the King of Sea like: “come on, can’t you do better than this” – trying to break his confidence and stress him out. But after a few enormous strikes of waves in the back I started sweet talking to him instead. Between you and me, I think I even included Neptune in my prayers.

Nature had me in the corner. My arms and knees had started calling up to headquarters with damage reports of pain and serious capacity loss. No wonder; Sitting in the captains “seat” (wooden box) turning the big wooden steer, I felt like a genuine rodeo rider going from side to side and back and forth according to the never ending waves.
Notice that rodeo riders on the wild horses keep up 20 maybe 30 seconds. I was riding completely untamed waves three hours a shift man! It was one hand on the wheel, one to keep yourself inside the boat and the legs balancing your body like suspensions on a car to keep you parallel with the horizon (more or less) while the boat was heeling tremendously over. Again and again.
The trick was to arrange the back of the boat to the coming wave and eventually compensate immediately on the wheel when it was passing – that was also the exhausting part and sometimes you just had to agree to dance with Neptune. I have to state here that it never was tender love song dances… it was always rock and roll you around!

I was truly a happy man when the three hours were gone. The clock reached 21.00 hours and I could finally blow the characteristic two times in the whistle and call up Gunnar.
  
Three hours of rest felt like having a weekend all to yourself. But like them they pass all too fast! I just managed to sleep for two hours before that bloody whistle conquered my “ocean deep” sleep (after all we had four kilometers of water below us). I am sure you know the feeling of waking up thinking: “it’s impossible, time cannot be up already!” and even your eyes are swollen and hurting because they have to open already again. But hey – it’s basically their one and only job, right!
There was no mercy – I blinked with my flash light to acknowledge to the Captain that I was awake and on the way.

This is how the saloon looks like. My cabin is in the background - the very front of the boat.

Stepping up from the protected saloon to the wind blowing in the cockpit was a world of a difference. It made me instantly fresh and alert. While Gunnar was giving his report and stating the missing signs of improvements, he was supported by the wind whistling in the mast.

It was midnight, another round heading 240 and surrounded by shadows that I now was more confident about. But I never had any doubt of the force. It was lifting and throwing this 11 meter and 10 ton heavy boat around to a point that it seemed that we were just a nutshell on the sea.
No, we were not cruising the Atlantic – we were surfing down the ocean! A few of the spraying waves splashed into the cockpit now and then but mostly she kept them waves out and handled the whole situation very well - so far.

At 02.30 a half an hour before my escape to resting my body I heard the main sail flapping. More and more. We were still doing the same course give and take, so it could be the wind had changed course. I checked the wind situation. Nothing was changed there – still wind from north east. I had to lean my body out on the rear end of the boat to get a free sight due to the solar panels on the spray hood’s roof. Something was wrong. The sail seemed to be tangled in the top. Nothing we could do about this now. It was dark, high waves and strong wind. To change the setting of the sail we had to crawl up to the mast. In the new boats everything is handled from the cockpit, but not us. We “wanted” or make it a “had” to do it the old fashion way so in these conditions some hazards was involved in a mast expedition.

Just before it was time to blow the whistle I checked the sail again with my head attached flashlight (keeping one hand for the boat). To my horror I discovered a hole in the top of the main sale! Shit shit shit!!! Not something we needed now. It could have been caused by the radar reflector made of aluminum hanging up at that level however I didn’t really matter now. The main sail was broken – that was the miserable fact.

“Uiiiiiiihh uiiiiiiihh” the whistle on my life jacket pronounced. Minutes later the captain was in the cockpit. Knowing that he just woke up and still probably was half asleep I thought I had to come out really soft with this bad news. The sentence I established sitting in the compass red lit cockpit was: “Gunnar, I have good and bad news. Bad news is that we have got a failure on the main sail. It has a hole… and the good news is that it is easier to steer!”. There is always a positive point – hunt it down and use it. It was the truth. Now we were even less sensitive to the wind and steering down the waves was lighter.
But I felt sorry for him since; he just invested in the boat (new sail could easily cost $5.000,-), we were making less speed, now even further away from the fun ride we all had hoped for from the start and the poor guy just woke up from two hours sleep for Christ sake!

I must say he took the bad news in a very calm way. I only heard one “shit” – just 1/3 of my portion. We had to just keep going and then in daylight we would take a closer look and discuss action according to safety and wave size.

I did not go down to my cabin in a good mood. Uncertainty about what to do now came crawling parallel with sleepiness which at some point was stronger and gained control at 03.30…

Uiiiiiiiihhhhhhh – The sound of the whistle cut right through boat, wind and wave sounds. But that could not be. 2 1/2 hours gone already again? I flicked the light as standard routine for being awake. My eyes were not happy about the situation and for a moment they refused to see clearly. Then the dots on my wristwatch slowly started to appear. It was only 04.30. Ohh no – a new situation must have enrolled in the cockpit. I rushed up.

During a flip of the main sail the sheet where the beam was attached had ripped itself up from the fiber glass and now the beam was dangerously swinging lose on one side of the boat. What kind of nightmare is this? Unfortunately I was not dreaming.
I got my lifeline on and caught some of the remaining robes attached to the beam in order to fix it on the boat again.

When it was done I went down in my cabin again feeling like a soldier coming back from a mission, fighting the enemy down. However I was not certain if the enemy power suddenly would erupt again. I refused to take off my clothes. Just lie down - ready for combat! I was at full alert and became aware of some new sounds in the boat...
Was the mast being overworked now with the main sail being looser and developing pressure where it was not supposed to…? I went up again. I tried to tighten the rob where the beam was fixed, to take some pressure off the mast and then went back to my bunker. Soon the sun would rise and we could look into damages and decide what to do. Hopefully without further damages. I guess I was just afraid of the potential line of damages still awaiting us. Nevertheless now some precious sleep was essential before next battle which could be in 1 day, 1 hour or maybe 1 minute… no time to waste.

1 second later I slept.

I wish I could say the worst part already had been uploaded... Stand clear for Part 5!!!
- Soon on this site…