Fights on board 06.00S 111.29W
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 26 May 2013 22:47
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Sunday, but you can't tell other that it says in
the loggbook.
The loggbook is where you logg whats happening on
board and how the weather changes.
It is very useful, you see trends that you would
not see, because humans tend to get used to the environment or we tend to
dramatise.
The most important thing though is to keep track of
longitude and lattitude, written about once an hour.
If we would get a total failout on the navigational
equipment (read electricity) we can continue to navigate on paperchart and
compass (and sextant).
Our loggbook looks dreadful right now, Ellinor
spilled a cup of coffe on it as she "forgot" the waves....
Another thing you logg is engine hours and fuel
consumption. The first is to know when it is time for next service and the
latter to keep track on how much fuel there is left in the tanks (dubbel check
with instruments).
It is always a sport to fill the boat and see how
close the loggbook and the reality are. Most of the time within 10
liters.
We have not filled Salsa since Panama, we have used
243 liters of Diesel, not bad considering we have travelled 2500 miles since
then.
Most of the fuel was used passing the doldrums on
our way to Galapagos.
Now we have 360 liters left and we use none for
propagation, just for the production of electricity wich is done in our
generator (that uses 1liter per hour, we usually run 1-2 hours every other
day).
Our kids have some need to move and of course Salsa
feels small for that. Also there is a tendency for physical fights between
Andreas and Erika. Andreas gets frustrated when she does not want to play with
him. So now I have an experiment that is going well, we have organised wrestling
in the doubble bed. The kids fight against me, and Im only allowed to use one
hand. They are all over and they scream, pull, push, wrestle etc. After 30
minutes this morning they have been angels all day. They loved it and want to do
it again. Poor me.
Ellinor and I have no need for that....
yet
We actually had a conversation all morning in the
cockpit, sitting by ourselfes, no interuption (the kids playing downstairs
without fights...).
It felt very priviledged. We do not see each other
much when running a watch schedule.
Today it is Sunday (again) and we are taking a day
off from projects. The sun is shining but we sit in the shade (thank
god).
The wind has picked up a little bit but we wish for
more. Last 24 hours we are down to 125nM. It has been hard to sail with little
wind and waves that obscure the sails.
From monday (tomorrow) the trade wind is going to
give way to a low and we will experience very little wind til wendesday,
according to the forecast.Our plan is to head west as long as possible and then
start pointing SW to pick speed with a higher angle on the wind.After that head
west again with hopefully increasing wind again.
As Philippe a french sailor on S/Y Caucienelle said
whe I gave him a lift to shore (in Galapagos) one morning:
-There are three kinds of wind:
Too much, Too Little and from the wrong
direction.
We are on two networks here at sea, one is called
the Scandinavian fleet, it is runned with emails since most boats here do not
have short wave radio. So we send emails with position,intentions, moods on
board, menus, bad jokes etc
The other network called Sothern Cross is
more international on the shortwave radio every morning at 0900 local
time.
That is a more formal network with roll call etc.
For those that are curious it goes something like this.
There is a netoperator (I'm on on saturdays from
now), the operator opens up like:
-This is Southern Cross net, operated from Salsa
this morning, do we have any emergency or priority traffic?
Then you wait for 15 seconds, and if we are lucky
there is none. There has been a few mornings with rigg failures
etc.
-Nothing heard, well, let's start with a roll call
from West to East, Sirius, Sirius, this is Sothern Cross,
-Sothern Cross, this is Sirius, can you read
me?
-Loud and clear, what is
your position?
So the give their longitude and lattitude, heading
and speed.
This is good because we can track them on a paper
chart, so when they report weather conditions, currents etc we can all compare
with the forecast and get an idea on how good it looks for us.
Then the operator asks: -All well on
board?
-All well on board, we saw two humpback wales
yesterday!
-Wow what a treat! Any wishes for traffic
today?
-No thank you, Sirius over and out.
So there is no small talk, just a spark of life, a
fish caught, some empathy with the boat that has no Autopilot, but no
more.
The wish for traffic opens up if Sirius wants to
chat with for instance Tuatara (another boat name), that is executed after the
net.
The reason you keep it short and gentle is that
there are about 15 boats listening and they all want to give a position, get an
idea of the weather and then get back to work, or sleep.
On top of that, some boats will be so far away that
we have to relay a call, that takes extra time. To relay means that there is a
boat between the net controller and the boat that cannot be heard, and that boat
has to repeat all said.
By the way the net controller repeats all
conversation so all can hear.
Right now the activity of the sun interfears a lot
with the radio waves so there is a lot of problems hearing each
other.
Well is it worth it?
Being at sea so far out, not seing a single boat
makes you feel small, so plotting other boats and hear them is a great comfort.
Even better is the safety issue, as a boat had a serious rigging problem, other
boats closed in on them and stayed close to offer help.
That makes a huge difference for the one in
troubble.
Last but not least, IF we would have satellitephone
only on board, and the system gave up we would have no other way of
communicating. There is not one single boat close enought to be heard on
the´VHF. The situation without a satphone is not dangerous, they sailed long
before that thing or even the compass was invented. But it is easy to imagine
the situation at home if nobody heard from us in 14 days at sea.
Now we can ask that somebody on the net email to
Dag our DP and keeps everything calm.
Happy mothers day!
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