30 22.4n,12 42.4w
Libeccio
Thu 9 Oct 2014 19:46
Today has been another day of almost no wind and of calm seas. There has been very little fellow marine traffic (at one point Michael was concerned that the AIS - the monitor that shows us any other boat in our 50 mile radius- was broken as he did not see anything for his entire 3 hour watch) but we have been entertained by a wide variety of wildlife. Andy had a pod of dolphins have a moonlit swim during his night watch, another pod of the smaller dolphins joined us as did a pod of small whales (possibly pilot whales). We find it fascinating that Manx Sheerwater Birds can live so far from land and we wonder where the basking turtles go at night. The turtles did not seem concerned about us at all and usually did not dive as we passed or even lift their head to investigate.
I have continued to observe the oceans waves. It is amazing how much time can be taken up just looking at the water. I now realise that 3 different types of waves actual make up the ocean movement. I bet you really wanted to know this! There are rollers, waves and ripples. You’ve heard about the rollers from Andy. Today Kevin said they made him think of the rolling plains of the prairies as there are gentle undulations (today they were 3-4 meters high but as they were rounded we just calmly road up and over them without any tilting) as far as you can see. Waves are smaller and usually relate more to where the wind is coming from. The ripples move over the waves and break up the surface of the water. For a good portion of the past 24 hours we have been missing the ripples and sometimes even the waves so that the water has been like a mirror. This meant that not only was the full moon the reflected in the water last night but you could even see the clouds.
Kevin is a great believer in Redundancy. He is trying to figure out a Plan B should anything on the boat break down. As he explained when the “topping lift” broke the other day, it was completely unexpected but he was still able to fix it. It will hopefully be unusual for the unexpected to happen and today was a perfect example of why. Today Kevin was able to try out 2 alternative methods to steer the boat should the steering from the helm break. One method, a drogue, is pulling something like a parachute behind the boat using 2 lines. It acts as a brake and if one of the lines is shortened then the boat will turn. This as actually a side benefit of a drogue as the real use for it is to slow you down if you are going too fast due to strong wind.
We also got to ‘play’ today. We tried out a new piece of equipment for if someone falls overboard. There are now 4 different things to throw. This one has a sling that is attached to the boat by a long line. We threw a floating pole overboard, threw the sling and then had to drive the boat around to lassoe them like you do when a water-skier has fallen over. it was kind of hard to remember why we were practising this as the sun was shining and we were having fun. We also all practised backing the boat up to our pole to work on manoeuvring. it was a great break in our hours of going in a straight line!
Tonight we are going to experience our first moonless night- a stark contrast to the near full moon and clear skies that have followed us so far and meant that we have had very good visibility, even in the middle of the night.
Hope everyone is doing well.
We appreciate the messages we have received.
The Crew of Libeccio