Becalmed
Snap
Sun 13 Dec 2015 11:47
So, the choices at the moment are to sit here and wait until the wind picks
up… OR option 2 = trundle (on motor) south to Mindelo in the Cape Verdes to
fill up with fuel.
Option 1 has gotta be favourite I think? The wind will likely pick up later
in the week, Thursday or so, by which time I’ll have drifted say 30nm a day
or 120nm nearer to where I want be anyway
Mindelo in the Cape Verde Islands has fuel, and nice Stingo has ben emailing
me about getting fuel there, so thanks for that. But it’s not a done deal
that I go there.
Mindelo is 420 nm away - about 72hours at 6 knots - but is only 140nm
nearer to the northern carib islands where I am ultimately gonna go. And as
above, just sitting quietly gets me most of that 140nm nearer anyway, and
free of money or effort too. So I’d just be filling with fuel that i wouldn’t
otherwise use anyway. Mindelo is effectively sideways from where I want to
be, I think. Thursday I would have full fuel at Mindelo 140nm closer the
carib, or by doing nothing at all, Thursday I will have nearly- full fuel as
I have now and be 120nm closer.
Plus the other thing is that if I dis take the second option - then once at
Mindelo I have GOT to be able to get fuel - else I am much worse off. And
that’s not guaranteed - all sorts of local things could stop the fuel being
sold. In the Marquesas frinstance they let us have fuel but only in the same
quantities as if we had a car, like the local inhabitants. Bit mad cos it
meant we were all hanging around for the repeated car-type amounts, instead
of giving us enough to clear off. But it could be another reason. They
might have run out, or something else. “Oh, monsieur, unfortunately the
fuel dump is closed in December this year, because the year number has
reversible prime factors!” and I’ll be saying wtf are you on about? “It
is true Monsieur! - check it yourself - 13 and 31 are both factors of 2015
and there is nothing we can do about it - the local trade union leader is a
mathematics crank!”
So, unless anyone has better ideas, I will hang around here.
Another possible options is to turn the motor on to reach say 7knots, and
turn the motor off. In other words, use a variety of
fuel-mileage-maximising ruses. I suppose “sails” are a way of maximising
fuel mileage. I just tried this - not bad really, and it takes ages to slow
to “drifting speed” of 1.1 knot.
Meanwhile, i was talking about exactly this -being becalmed- to some guys in
LP, who say that after a while a stationary boat becomes a magnet for fish
who all love the shade. I remember finding a shoal tuna under a drifting
boat near the Azores a few years ago, so the same might happen to me now.
Or soon, maybe. Very pretty, very beautiful in the meantime, near
cloudless and of course er not too windy and hence not cold.
Less positively, I feel somehow a bit more vulnerable to potential
attackers, tootling along at 1 knot. If I was American of course I would
have guns for precisely this situation. I think it was Pamela Stevenson who
decided to go long-distance sailing, and the first thing she did was to take
a course at a gun range. Bit mad i think. I’m fairly vulnerable at 5 or
even 10knots but it feels more like yerknow, I’m moving along, stop
bothering me, less attractive to some opportunistic maritime mugger than 1
knot. Anyway, not a lot I can do about it. I have some petrol so I suppose
I could get that out and chuck it at people, maybe. I don’t think it’s a
huge issue - loads of boats go slowly, hardly any (if any) get attacked.
So, i could get off and have a swim! Hum well, maybe and maybe not.
1.3knots like just now isn’t standing still for a start. I can swim fast,
but 100 metres in a minute is sprinting speed, and that’s not even 4 knots.
I went swimming in calm sea before and it was yerknow, alright, not life
changing. And it would be a bit awkward getting bitten or stuff like that,
especially not having the gear or skills to self-operate etc.
Option 4 is to explore the more distant options - if I used ALL my fuel -
would i get to a windier place? But i can’t afford to do that - i need to
charge batteries with generator. Hum. I think BX would tell me if there
was a magic spot just 500nm further along with lots of wind on Wednesday,
say.
So, plenty of things to try if you really put your mind to it. I’d
definitely sort things out with that Desert Island Disc thing as well - even
with no boat-making materials you could just move the sand from one side of
the island to the other and move along like that. Actually, that’s quite a
good idea anyway- the UK could move unused bits of Scotland down to expand
and extend overcrowded Cornwall further SW and eventually migrate the whole
country towards warmer weather. And towards me, stuck out here, eh?
Possibly the most ego-centric rescue mission ever devised — move the land
closer to the boat. And that RNLI has easily got the money to do it, I
bet. But it would take a while I suppose - realistically, I wouldn't have
thought they would move much land this way before the Xmas break or even
till the New Year ...