Day 43 - Leg 3 Day 14 at Sea '24 hours to go'
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Thu 6 Aug 2015 03:33
|
Since the last post, we have made pretty good
time and the winds have held up better than forecast. Yesterday we
did our 2nd fastest leg since we departed from Mackay and clocked up 202.6 miles
over ground. We are now 'in the ones' ie 199 miles to 100 mile range and,
in fact have around 150 miles to go. As we have sailed for 80%
of the past 3 days, we have plenty of fuel left and, if the wind
dies out later today as forecast, we will motor the final 100 or so miles.
I want to make sure that we have cleared through customs, immigration etc before
they decide to take an early dart for the weekend, so I am aiming to be tied up
in St Pierre be 14.00. Even the French can't finish earlier than that on a
Friday - or can they???
The weather is definitely changing and getting
cooler. Also, we have had squalls on and off over the past 3
days. The good thing about radar is that you can see a squall (the radar
reflects off heavy rain) so, it is often possible to change course slightly to
avoid the worst of the weather. Having said that, it is great to encounter the
occasional one, particularly when you are getting close to your destination, as
it gives the boat a good wash down and gets rid of the salt.
Another thing that we have noticed over the past few
days is the increase in tanker traffic. In the first half of the Indian
Ocean, we probably saw less than 6 ships in total. We have seen 20 in the
past 24 hours, so it is almost like rush hour. If you look at where we
are, we are on the route for vessels having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, bound
for Singapore, Indonesia etc and, as we get closer towards South Africa and the
Cape, the shipping lanes will get narrower and more
concentrated.
We obviously keep a watch system going 24/7 whilst we
are at sea. Also, in addition to radar, we have AIS (Automated
Identification System), which sends out and receives information to and from
vessels, including name and details of the vessel, its course and, most
importantly, its CPA - Closest Point of Approach ie it tells you what is the
closest to you another vessel will be and when. Judging distances and
angles at sea, particularly at night, can be pretty tricky, so AIS is a
brilliant safety aid. Basically, any ship over 300 tonnes has to carry one
of these, so we see them further off and have the detailed information to help
us track them.
Occasionally, as happened to me last night, you pick up
a vessel on AIS and can see thet the CPA is going to be too close to you.
I picked up a tanker 14 miles away and we were pretty much on a head on
collision course. There are a number of 'rules of the road' whilst at sea,
eg power gives way to sail etc, but in the open ocean, that largely becomes
irrelevant. If you are a sail boat in the middle of the ocean, whilst you
may be keeping a good lookout, but the odds are that the guy on the tanker is
asleep!! The number one rule at sea is avoid hitting something else.
The problem in my head on situation is what to do. The obvious thing is to
change course to give you more of a passing distance, but what if he actually
has seen you and decides to change course the same way? The easiest thing
to do is to pick up the radio, explain that you are the sailing boat eg 8
miles from them and directly ahead and can they just confirm that they can
see you on their systems. There is usually a short period of silence
while they start looking for you in a panic, after which they reply that they
have you on radar/AIS etc. You can then agree between you who does what
and it is usually as simple as both agreeing to add a couple of degrees to port
or starboard and everybody is happy.
The first time that you do this, you are usually a bit
nervous and feel cheeky asking a 1,000 ft long tanker to alter course to avoid a
55 ft boat, but it is in everybody's interest to avoid problems, and they are
usually happy to do so. Also, I have had some great conversations
with some of these guys who are basically bored and happy to chat to pass the
time. Most of them think that we are barking mad to be doing what we are
doing!!
Anyway, we are now all counting down the miles and my
next post will be from Reunion Island.
|