A Star to steer by
Tenacity47
Tue 26 Jul 2011 18:01
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On passage-making boats, there are certain requisites; safety and comfort
are primary.
And there are the desirables; good food and the refrigeration system to
stock for that.
A self steering rig and that holy-of-holies: an ice maker.
The last two items we don’t have.
Cold beer makes up for no ice, but the boat has to be
hand steered every moment
it is underway. We knew this leaving Bermuda. With three aboard, we stand
wheel watch,
three hours on, six off. And the steering demands attention; the
relationship between
wind and wave, sails and rudder is constantly changing. To maintain our
easterly course
the helmsman must balance all these forces. In some conditions, a moments
inattention
and you find that you’re heading for Nova Scotia, or worse, you could put
the rig in danger
from an inadvertent jibe.
Surprisingly, the three hour tricks at the wheel seem to
go fast. In the sun or rain, in fair or foul
weather. Some nights can be a real wrestling match. Some days, just a
gentle tug on the
wheel will put things right. But always the demand to be the helmsman, the
balancer of
forces behind the wheel.
Except one night. That evening, the wind and the waves,
and the heading we were on,
with the set of the sails, no steering was needed. For hours at a time the
wheel went untouched.
I sat sideways in the cockpit, facing south. Instead of peering into the
compass for guidance,
I picked a star, Antares, in the constellation Scorpio, to steer by. The
night and sea rolled by.
I will most likely forget most of the struggles at
the wheel, the rain and the squalls.
But I will long remember that gentle night, when the whole cosmos was in
balance, and just
to the west of the glow of the Milky Way, I could could steer by a star.
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