There is a sailor’s tale that a red night is a sailor’s delight and a red morning is a sailor’s warning. This morning the sunrise illuminated the sky with deep red and orange; which reminded us of this old sailor’s tale. As we make our approach to the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) we wonder is this morning’s cherry red sky a good or bad omen.
The ITCZ is basically a rain band that stands between us and our destination. There is no going around it only through it. Our goal is to pass through at the perfect spot so that we do not get caught in a bad squall.
Our concern is not only this morning’s sunrise, but there have been wispy upper-level clouds that could possibly indicate weather headed our direction. The sea state has not let up and the waves are closer to 10 feet with the occasional 12 footer that may occasionally break and spray the cockpit.
Most have fantasies in their head of what sailing on the big blue to a foreign destination would be like; although, we don’t want to bum anyone out the actual is not as romantic as the idea. First and foremost people forget we’re not on a cruise ship that has attendants and deck hands to stand the watch, prepare the meals, clean the salt away from large waves, or watering the garden. We do it all and on less than full sleep so we really ask ourselves is it really worth the energy. See your energy is the most valuable asset on the boat because if you don’t have energy and the weather changes or you have to tend to something broken then your energy is all you have to rely on.
To maximize our energy we both need real sleep not two hours here and there so we’ve divided up our nights into eight-hour watches then during the day we hang out together reading books and/or chat about the weather and if one of us needs to nap, we nap. Our normal sleep schedule is about 10 pm to 7 am so we split the time in half and our watch turnover is 2:30 AM. Sara goes to bed a little after sunset and Wade will wake up whenever he is ready in the morning. So far this little experiment has worked out well. We’re both still tired but at least we’re rested.
On watch, we don a yellow mustang life jacket equipped with an AIS indicator, personal EPRIB, and Raymarine man overboard alarm. The AIS indicator puts an indicator on all chart plotters in the vicinity that have AIS; basically, the boat has a fix on your location. The personal EPRIB is used to notify the Coast Guard of your location. What most people don’t know is neither of these devices has an actually audible alarm to alert others onboard someone actually went overboard so if someone is sleeping they may not know for hours that someone went overboard. With great forethought Wade found a third safety item: the Raymarine man overboard alarm is used to audibly alarm the boat that someone is overboard and because it has three ways to activate the alarm (submerge, hold activation button for 5 seconds, or the device is just too far to read a signal) we were able to test the alarm when Sara accidentally sat on the activation button, thank goodness Wade was already awake, haha. Lastly, it automatically records a man overboard position on the chart plotter.
Comfort Cruising Tip
Watch duties include but are not limited to:
- Setting the auto-pilot to the appropriate course and trimming the sails to maintain course, speed, and position on waves for the fastest and most comfortable ride.
- Monitor the Raymarine radar for rainstorms and traffic.
- Keep a watchful lookout and trust your eyes before equipment.
- Look at cloud formations and color to help with weather forecasting
- Monitor the temperature and barometric pressure for decreases; which may indicate a storm is nearby.
Watch Gear:
- A picnic blanket that has plastic on one side and fleece on the other. This was not planned but the plastic is normally there to protect from a wet ground but it makes a great blanket on the watch to protect from sea spray and easily washes.
- A travel size spray bottle filled with isopropyl alcohol and a microfiber eyeglass cloth to clean glasses. Your eye or sunglasses don’t scratch and clean up no matter how thick the salt layer is on the glass.
- Waterproof dive light to shine on the sails at night.
- A headlamp with a red plastic piece that flips over the top or a red light setting so going from white light to red light at night is easy. (Red lights at night help you keep your natural night vision)
As we are preparing for the heavier weather we have changed from our Genoa to our Stay Sail changing our speed from an average of 6.5 to 5 but hopefully we’ll have a smoother ride.
With all of that said we stand our proper watch and keep on sailing on!
Updates from the previous post:
- Position: 14 degrees 40 minutes North and 157 degrees 38 minutes West – 148 miles traveled since our last Noon Report
- 388 of 1049 miles are traveled thus far
- Wind speed has averaged 18 to 25 knots on our beam and our average course still is about 170 degrees.
- Wade spotted a sliver of the moon last night on his watch so we have a new moon on our new journey! – Addition to The Art of Puking: Aim to Leeward and not to Winward
Wade and Sara
