Yesterday afternoon a AIS MOB message appeared on our plotter screen, this meant a Man Over Board beacon had been activated. We immediately clicked to see where it was and within a few seconds had established it was very near or even on our boat. As everyone was still on board we started to look for accidental activations and quickly found one on the Busun’s belt. 

The rule on Moose is at night or in rough weather you wear your life jacket, during the day if it’s calm you can remove your life jacket but then must carry an AIS MOB beacon which must be attached to you.

We have some handy little pouches, one of which the Bosun uses on a leather belt. Seems she managed to catch it on something, at least twice as activation is a two stage process. Fortunately it only activated the electronics but didn’t release the aerial so was not transmitting at full strength and we were therefore the only boat to receive the message. It was soon switched off and ready to work another day. 

While I was writing that, Dicky and John just lost another two fish. Almost certainly Mahi Mahi as they are known to travel in pairs. GETTING HUNGRY NOW !!!

The above picture is a winch, it is driven by a very a powerful 12v motor. We have three, we use them for tightening lines. You can see the line coming in at the bottom is tight, this one is actually holding down the tack/foot of the spinnaker. The line at the top is the free end coming out of what is called the self tailer. As the winch is operated it pulls in line at the bottom and feeds it out at the top. It is the friction created by the turns around the body that provide the grip the self tailer just keeps some tension on the line, you can operate the winch without using the self tailer but you have to pull on the loose end yourself. The winches create extraordinary force, the line at the bottom is often referred to as “bar tight” as it is so taught it looks and feels like an iron bar. The winches are also one of the more dangerous parts of the boat so great care has to be taken when using them.  They can be used for raising sails, reefing sails, trimming sails, hoisting Dicky up the mast and a whole multitude of other things. I believe they can also be operated manually with a winch handle.