Falmouth to St Peter Port in Guernsey
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Position: 49:27:27N 02:31:60W Falmouth to Guernsey. Time for a more interesting sail! It wasn’t long after leaving Falmouth that a pod of about 8 or more porpoises chose to join us as leaving party! Criss-crossing our bow they kept with us for over 5 minutes! Luckily, we were able to video too! (Note to self; learn to hold the camera still whilst the red button is pressed down.) All one can say about the rest of trip is that it all went to plan. The winds were a little bigger than forecast and they came mainly on our aft. The boat just kept going with an easy motion in swells, the in-furling mast learnt who was really the boss, and the shipping traffic was many. Actually, the shipping traffic was many many! We set up a 2 hourly night watch system and went through the shipping lanes during the night. It was quite fun, often with huge tankers and cargo ships all around us, their navigation lights often being the only visible part of them for some time. Bob and Les had a great time on their watch! Our watch handover reviews following their watches were often punctuated with Bob’s enthusiastic details of his sparring matches with tankers and fishing vessels that just seemed to turn for no obvious reason as they chased their quarry. Great stuff! Having sailed across the shipping channels we then negotiated the currents between Guernsey and Alderney during early sun rise. The currents were heading along our course so we were making good time to arrive in St Peter Port by breakfast. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Panic! “What is this Beep!” BEEPs everywhere, and AIS “Man
Overboard” alerts on both the Chart plotters! “Someone has fallen in the Ocean
right next to us!” A quick head headcount confirmed it wasn’t anyone from ‘Timeless’ – but there were no other boats around either! Hmmmmm? Neither could we see any bodies floating around in the water! Now is the time to explain that there is a high tech system that sailors can use that ensures an automatic beacon called AIS is activated in an emergency - for example if they fall in the water. This enables boats within 2 miles or so to locate them by following the signal produced. There are obvious benefits to the modern day sailor as this system doesn’t rely on the vagaries of noticing if a crew falls and not losing sight of them – and the system also alerts all other vessels within range equipped with AIS receivers. The clue to solve this conundrum lies in the fact that all ‘Timeless’ crew are supplied with super-dooper life jackets equipped with AIS transmitters. BEEP! BEEP! Had one of them been activated accidentally? “Ah ha!” It turns out that I had accidentally caught my own jacket on a line and set off my alert! BEEP! BEEP! Just a simple matter (?) of ripping the jacket apart, deactivating and resetting the AIS, then re-building the jacket and it was if nothing had ever happened! Five minutes later the peaceful early morning sunrise returned. Hey! Think of it as a practice run - ahead of the unthinkable ever really happening if someone really fell in. The system worked. All the remaining crew would have been alerted – even if they were asleep (based on the noise!) AND the man overboard would have been located regardless of how far they might have drifted from the boat or how dark the evening or how large the seas – even if they were unconscious! (Of course you still have to get the poor crew member back on board!) We have quite a stringent crew regime on ‘Timeless’ when underway – crew always wear a ‘Timeless’ AIS equipped life jacket and always wear a harness if we leave the cockpit or if we are the only one on deck. Overall, the journey took just under 19 hours and we averaged a speed of 7 knots for the 142 miles actually traveled. No pictures this time because it was night time for the most part and we spent most of our time keeping an eye on those skittish fishing boats! |