38°01' N
0°0'07" E
1100h
______________________
another perfect day? sleeping in shifts. half at one point in the day and half i think at another. sort of based around my nocturnal watch time, and taking advantage of the daylight. i get the sunrise as well as the sunset and sleep and work in the in between times. i think this morning i elected to go to sleep in celebration of the sunrise in lieu of snacking and hanging out on deck, which i have done for a number of days.
crossed the GMT line, now we're east of greenwich.
sarah bladon, at the helm
the autopilot is on the fritz. i had wondered out loud just yesterday about how if must've been more challenging to sail when there was no such thing as autopilot, GPS and so on. on the one hand. what this means is that for two of my last three watches i have been chained to the steering, which is actually all relaxing and focus oriented. steering a course is quite challenging and whenever i talk to anyone i still go off course. careful what you wish for. so, it's tiny adjustments and lots of waiting; otherwise it's 'India, China. India, China.' inefficient and frustrating. occasionally i get into the zone and everything is peachy.
for a while last night i was all concerned about this giant boat which, according to AIS (one of the exciting aids to navigation), was to be directly across our bow. or us across theirs.
AIS is something like radar, but VRM/EBL is more like the radar in the WWII movies. as i was introduced to both of these yesterday, while on watch when the autopilot was still working, it took me a while to establish even the most basic information about the giant boat. some of these ships are HUGE. eventually, after a series of less than peachy meanderings and using the VRM/EBL, i established that giant boat was going toward shore, was more than 6 and less than 12 nautical miles away, took a deep breath and a sip of diet coke and relaxed. i knew it was big and far, but once i knew how far i was pleased to turn down the stress meter.
AIS gives us the name of the vessel, its heading, speed and so on. you can program it to track the thing ("target acquired") and even lets you know if you'll pass close to it given the current heading and speed of each vessel. pretty cool, really. i went a little further west than had been planned, but as i had been given a COG (Course Over Ground) that was basically straight into the wind, it was the best of all possible alternatives regardless. or that's what i am told. kinda strange to be listening to a motor on a sailing trip, but the wind was under 10 knots and there is a somewhat loose schedule to keep. a schedule nonetheless.
ferdinand diesel is actually quite soothing and lulled me into nearly sleeping into my watch, i think every other night (morning?) we'd been under sail and my little alarm, which merely turns on and makes the tiniest amout of white noise... i think there's a beepy version and also perhaps a radio in there. works great, unless there's that low rumble.
i am reminded of the epoch when i first lived in the Mayfair block. Big Poppa had two VHS machines hooked up to a kickass stereo and a rather complete library of Star Trek The Next Generation. i had been a rabid attender of Trekfast [Louis' Pub in S'toon each and every saturday that we happened to be in town] but made no effort to be there for the new series, claiming to be a fan of the original run and no prisoner of the next generation hype. i started watching TNG in sequence and was moderately pleased until one day i figured out that the VHS could be run through the stereo. there's this low end rumble in there that really turned my head. you can't hear it if you watch this thing on a 'regular' TV, as the 2 inch speaker simply does not make low end. and i was suddenly really, truly impressed with the sound. and hence the series. fully hooked. i think i watched 2 or maybe 3 episodes a day for more than a month.
i like ferdinand's rumble. there's also the generator, that one is lovely, though perhaps not as soothing.
