A "Quiet Night" N41:44 W66:08
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Thu 7 May 2009 13:39
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The three nights so far have all been quiet,
at least the wind has dropped and then got up again at dawn. A good thing
too when it got up to force 8 on Tuesday and 6 yesterday.
Last night was only quiet in one sense: We had
sailed through a group of draggers in the afternoon, probably out of New
Bedford. We would call them trawlers and most were big stern
trawlers. The first one I saw was astern, they did not have AIS
transmitters and with the usual limited visibility over the cold water here
you would need a very constant lookout to see them. I hope they could see my radar reflector.
As they were all circling and hauling nets close to
each other, so they must have been watching carefully. They were also
in a particularly choppy bit of water, 70m deep but with a current crossing
sharp banks and troughs at the northern edge of St George's bank.
After that there were no more ships either out of
sight on the AIS or fishing and the water was deep enough at 90m to make me
think I was beyond the fishermen. With the dark the wind fell away
completely and we lay with the sails slatting in the swell. We were going
nowhere so I eventually rolled up the genoa and left the main to bang
across, but at least stop us rolling too much.
I went to one hour lookouts, perhaps 50 minutes
sleep, then look round and reset both alarms. The second one goes off as
soon as you get back in bed, which is a good reason to have reset both as soon
as you get out. At midnight I was sure it was quiet enough to get more
sleep, but half an hour later was woken by the battery alarm. We had
the masthead tricolour light on, our one remaining heavy current light, but
I did want fishermen to see me if they were there. I started the
engine to charge the battery, set the alarms for half an hour and went back to
bed. Half an hour later, back up and stop the engine: Now I
could get a bit more sleep.
Half an hour later at 3 o'clock the AIS alarm went
off. It reported the Paris Express heading straight for us, just inside
the 16 mile guard zone on the AIS. There was no wind, so I started the
engine and motored due south, at right angles to their course. As they
were doing 22 knots and I was doing 4 it only helps a bit.
The next bit was interesting: At 1.5 miles
off I am sure that they saw me on their radar and switched off their
autopilot. They had been on a precise heading until then. A little
nerve-racking, as at first they came south a little, no guesswork, you
could see the numbers drop on their AIS heading. Then I think they
recognised that I was going south and at 1.4 miles away, turned 20 degrees
north. They crossed my stern half a mile off and I could just make out
lights, not navigation lights but a faint white
blur.
Back to sleep.
Before 6 the breeze was back and we were sailing
again, close hauled but pushing smoothly up and down over the big swell
left from yesterday. At 6.30 half a dozen dolphins arrived. If I
could play in the waves, they would join in. After a few minutes they fell
astern but then a larger group, 20 or more white sided dolphins, came
and played around the bows and astern. 4 or 5 surfacing together,
crossing each other right under the bows and one jumped fully clear of the
water. They were with us for perhaps 1/2 an hour.
If there are any under the bows now I cannot
see them as it is raining again for the second time this
morning. It is only 8am. There are none astern. I can see that
way even when it is raining.
So much for a quiet night.
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