Diamond ball
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Fri 26 Mar 2010 07:52
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Thursday March 24 1506Local
2006UTC
03:42.28N 084:59.83W
We have now left Panama and the Atlantic on the
other side far behind now and are in the open Pacific Ocean on the way to
Galapagos. The Atlantic was memorable for us and we had many wonderful and
interesting experiences there. Also for now, we have left many of the known
and percieved non-sailing security risks behind the Bridge of Americas. Off
course this does not mean we can be complacent or off guard, but as things stand
we have a long "clear run" from here to the Mallacca straits where they used to
be leaders in the world league of piracy hot spots. But, then of course we
have to work through the issues and security challenges at Horn of Africa
and face down our Somalian "friends".
Speaking of security risks, have you ever been to
down town Colon, in Panama? This is a very aptly named place. It is
dingy and smelly, and is the most insecure I have ever felt in my
life, anywhere. You need to be light footed and sharp eyed to even leave a car
there to cross the pavement. All advice, which is understandable, is not to go
there, but sometimes you just have to, to get things done, which I had to.
Speaking of these anal places reminds me of the
American tourist who visited Kyleakin on the mainland of Scotland and where one
used to get the ferry to Skye before the bridge was built . This guy was a
big shot and used to large and glitzy places and was very unimpressed by the
small scale of the village, and in his eyes, its lack of facilities. "This place
must be the a**ehole of the world" he drawled to the worldly old ferryman, who
glanced him up and down condecendingly and replied "so you will be just passing
though it then!"
I have already told you of the prolific marine life
we have encountered since entering the Pacific and yesterday we had two, TWO,
blue marlin strikes. In each case they struck and the line zinged out at high
speed while we witnessed the Marlin leaping for the sky and in each case
throwing the hook. Damn! But what excitement......
Yesterday was a wonderful day, well actually all
days are wonderful days just sometimes the weather is terrible. However
yesterday the weather was fine and we were delighted with a weather
forecast which was incorrect. No wind was forecast and for most of our first 36
hours of passage we had 15 - 18 knots of breeze just behind the beam which is 10
knot stuff for us. As the day progressed the wind eased and veered to 140deg -
150 deg to our course. This is no-go territory for us in lighter winds so we
decided to try "goose-winging", with genoa poled out to weather, which the
boat builders and others had suggested we try. Unfortunately the experiment was
a failure as the wind kept easing and without being pressed the rolling of the
boat caused the flapping and slapping of the
sails which would have destroyed the rig all too quickly! We will however try
this again in stronger winds once we find the opportunity. Unfortunately we then
had to resort to motoring but we have been very lucky and just a little dogged
in this respect as we have not yet got 500 hours on our engine!
Through the night last night several hundred miles
from anywhere I came upon two purse seine vessels fishing for tuna probably, and
with their gear out. Though substantial vessels they did not transmit AIS
probably due to not wanting to broadcast where they were fishing. In addition to
the normal lights these vessels show a flashing yellow light on the side where
they have the gear. It is an unusual but easy to remember light signal, however
in the canal a few days a go we saw a vessel with the following day signals: two
diamonds to starboard, ball, diamond, ball centre and two balls to port. It is a
straightforward signal but I for one dont remember seeing so many
balls and diamonds together in a signal. In observing this and my interest
in the signal, one of our rookie crew asked Trish if it was unusal for us to see
so many balls and diamonds. Trish replied that I always had plenty of
balls but that she has never seen enough diamonds! Do you know what the
signal indicates?
Over the past few weeks I have found myself getting
more and more involved in business communications but so far I have not found
this a problem, indeed it keeps a sense of challenge and purpose and keeps one
busy. That is if there is not enough to do with repairing, maintaining, cooking,
cleaning, some exploring, sightseeing, snorkelling and even some
sailing. Bloody marvellous.
I have had my first business challenge to deal
with while circumnavigating and I'm sure it wont be the last, but fortunately we
have a team who are the Gael Force and its onwards and upwards and business
as usual. We have been very fortunate in this recession to have a growing and
profitable business and one which is still taking on new challenges. This trip I
am on is great, but I love what we do at home also and sometimes miss being
in the thick of it.
Occassionally because we are Hebridean, we like to
throw a party, and in Shelter Bay in Panama we had a great wee night. We had
Scots, Japanese, Irish, Australian, American, French and English aboard. One
idiot was even seen to climb high into the rigging using only shrouds and
diagonals! Our next party maybe for the equator crossing and Trish has also
asked to be in Galapagos for Saturday night because she read about "Blue
Booby" cocktails which can be had there - the mind boggles.
In fact I have to leave the key board for now as
its Happy Hour. Back in a jiffy.......
....... Hi - back again. Regular readers may know that aboard Rhiann Marie, if conditions are
fine, all jobs are up to date and everyone is pulling their weight then we
have a happy hour each night with one drink each. It is very good
for moral and a happy ship ....... anyway enough of the
justifications. Today we made the fatal mistake of first playing Face the
West a young band from the Hebrides and then The Vatersay Boys also from
the Hebrides, this further improved spirits and in the fine flat calm
weather while motor sailing we had a cheeky wee second one. The Vatersay Boys
had to be switched off in case an emergency party broke out, but I made
a silent promise that if we completed the voyage successfully we should
hire them for a gig sometime.
Life aboard at the moment is good, and we are
having a ball. So far we have again had a safe and happy ship - our number one
goal. When new people come aboard for a trip I go over a detailed safety
briefing with them and emphasise our non negotiable position on a safe and happy
ship. My blunt style on this sometimes causes sharp intakes of breath but I
am serious about it and so far it has been effective. Everyone is made to
understand that falling off Rhiann Marie is not an option. I explain that almost
certainly they will die in the ocean and in the small possibility that they did
get back aboard I would probably kill them anyway or at the very least they
would be despatched straight home - simple. After safety, happiness is high
priority and I set out the rules for a happy ship and a contented skipper
and crew at the outset. There are not many rules but they are cast iron and
so far so good. We also have a printed briefing sheet for all joining
the ship. We have found that getting all the known potential issues out in
the open and up front works best.
In Galapagos, where we hope to be by Saturday
night, we will tour around the various islands and take various trips. We
unfortunately cannot take our own boat around as this is very strictly
controlled. Even if we were able to get a permit we would have to have a
naturalist aboard for the duration. Therefor we will have to go on
organised boat tours and dive trips. We will also have lots of work to do to
prepare for the Pacific crossing where there will be just Angus, Trish and I.
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