Watchkeeping at Sea and Psychology of Sailing for Sailboat Voyage Planners

There is a little book (only 120 pages) titled 'The Psychology of Sailing' by Michael Stadler which should be read by all sailors planning their adventure of a lifetime sailing voyage. This compact book looks at what being at sea on a sailboat/yacht for lengthy passages can have on the human body and mind.

It also examines the dynamics and interactions between skipper and crew, the crew members themselves and vice versa, their reactions and attitudes to the captain/owner of the boat they are on. Everyone has an ego (even sailors!) and depending on the size of that ego and what their agenda may be, unexpected situations can develop that were not foreseen with quite dramatic and sometimes unwanted results.

It certainly pays when selecting crew for passagemaking to make several overnighters with potential starters to see how they fit in with other crew and with how you as captain want to run your ship.

I believe the book is out of print now but you can purchase it still from Amazon Books for around $10.00 for a used copy. Well worth getting hold of a copy and reading well in advance of your leaving port.

Moving on to watchkeeping - in these days of evermore super electronics it is easy to be drawn into a cocoon and finding yourself being lulled into a false sense of security and relying more and more on your electronics to keep you out of trouble. If ever there was a false sense, this would be it. There is absolutely no substitute for keeping a good visual lookout and an appropriate watch system.

The following is an extect from my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship Tere Moana':

'..........And so, on watch at 0200 hrs. her captain is going through his routine – several leg pumps, squats, press ups and weighted leg lifts. The ambient temperature is around twenty two degrees Celsius, so he is able to carry out all this just wearing a pair of shorts.
Twenty minutes later, having worked up a sweat, even in the cooling breeze, and puffing from his exertion, he looks around his three hundred and sixty degree circle and slips below to check her instruments.

The GPS is of particular interest as this will show him their exact position on the ocean. It is time for a plot and he scribes this onto the chart, noting how many miles they have come, and how many miles there are left to run.

The nav centre is a cosy corner at night. Various pips, chirrups, hums and scrapes from the instruments, fill the air, and the dim light from the chart lamp emits a warm friendly glow.

Lingering over the chart our captain, in the deep recesses of his mind, slowly becomes aware of a more persistent bleep thrusting its way up into his consciousness. Alarmed suddenly, he hits the radar button off standby and the phosphorescent green glow coming up reveals a large white shape approaching rapidly almost dead ahead, but just off her starboard bow. No time to call up or hit the 2182 alarm key. Flying up the four steps of the companionway, over the bridge deck and into the cockpit, he cracks his shin mightily en route, but doesn’t even feel it in his panic. Staring upward to starboard in the pitch darkness he sees a freighter, hugely black on black, slipping by, not more than one hundred metres distant.

Her top light at this close range seems to tower menacingly over them, and the superstructure, right over. No other sign of life is visible and the vessel ploughs onward, into the night, course unchanged. Heart pounding in his relief, he brings our little ship off the wind enough to turn into the freighters wake and ride out the oncoming waves.

A freighter travelling at eighteen knots can, from being just out of sight over the horizon from eye height in a yachts’ cockpit, travel the distance and arrive in around fifteen minutes. This particular vessel was probably travelling at fourteen knots only, but being on an almost collision course with our little ship, she making six knots, they had a combined approach speed of twenty knots – easily reaching an impact point in fifteen minutes. Her captain looks at his watch and realises he had overstayed below by a few minutes. He had broken one of his own rules and almost paid the price.

Watching the rapidly retreating white light, and left to ponder what might have been, her captain thankfully tips his cap heavenward, acknowledging that someone must be looking over them.' end of extract.

That was my experience on an overnighter in French Polynesia en route to Bora Bora.

The watch system I used and which we found to be quite effective was as follows:

With a crew of three (including skipper) the night was broken into three watches of four hours each from 2000hrs to 0800hrs. During the twelve hours of daylight all three crew were on watch all of the time. Any task or relaxation could be pursued e.g. eating, sleeping, reading, maintenance, sail trimming, navigation etc. etc., but if a crewmember went below they were to ensure that there was always another crew on deck.

This was a rock solid rule, was respected, strictly observed and worked very well. The big advantage of this system was that everyone knew that on completion of the 0800hrs. watch, all crew had at least twelve hours straight before going back on watch again. Another rule whilst on night watch was that the watchkeeper had to take the boat off auto pilot and helm for at least one hour during their watch. During the day any crew member could helm as they chose.

I recommend that you study the many watch systems available to you and select the one which matches your requirements the closest - you can of course experiment first before settling on your final choice.

You can read more about close calls and watchkeeping in my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship Tere Moana' downloadable from my website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com

Katabatic Wind and Catenary Pull Knowledge for Sailboat Voyage Planners

The English language is littered with nautical expressions and words. Most of them originate from the wood and sail days of the British Navy, two and three hundred years ago. Expressions such as 'toe the line', 'tarred with the same brush', 'three sheets to the wind', and the most famous of all, 'splice the mainbrace', along with many many more are very much alive and well and part of everyday language today. This is a whole separate subject in itself and many sites can be found on the internet devoted to this phenomenon.

Two phrases which are more contemporary, roll wonderfully of the tongue and are relevent today as part of a cruising sailors store of knowledge are 'katabatic wind' and 'catenary pull'. Say these several times and you will see what I mean.

The following is a short extract from my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana':

'A thunderous thump, preceded by a low howling whistle abruptly wakes the crew from their slumbers. She realises it is the first of many wind gusts attacking her out of the long valley, but is surprised at the ferocity of it. She reels under the assault, heels over and carves quite an arc around her anchor point.

These night katabatic gusts are created by the cooler air higher up the mountain rolling down the valley, gathering speed and strength as it gushes downward, flowing over the lower slopes and out to sea, where it is finally spent. Anything in its path prior to that point receives a good hammering. Hence the noise on impact and subsequent discomfort. She is a little affronted and feels that it doesn’t need to be quite that violent.

The captain comes topside to check the anchor is still holding. Slipping back into his bunk he adjusts his hatch to control the airflow into the aft cabin. Subsequent gusts arrive intermittently throughout the night, but none seem to have the intensity of the first one. Maybe they become used to them?

Morning comes up all dewy with a fine gauze like haze. Bathing in the early morning sun, the errant valley beams innocently back at them, looking blameless and gentle and quite incapable of handing out the buffeting they had received during the night.

Heading for shore to explore, our crew run the dinghy up onto the gently sloping beach..........'

Katabatic wind:
While the land breeze is rather gentle, not so the katabatic wind.
It doesn't believe in sweet dreams.

After a warm, windless and cloud-free summer day, the katabatic wind will blow in strong gusts. The cooler air from above will flow down the deep valleys and rush out to sea.

This local wind, which tends to spoil the most pleasant nights, can easily reach 25 or even 30 knots. It blows from late evening until sunrise. Kata means "downward".

Extract and images courtesy 'Expedition Sail'

More from 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana':

'Quietly cruising along the shoreline, this time using the inside channel, her intention is to anchor for the night off the famous Hotel Taharaa, nestled in a small bay midway back to Papeete Port.
Slipping around the headland in the now darkness, the bay opens up revealing a stream of lights tumbling down the cliff face. This is the hotel and it is
interestingly built using the slope of the land.

Fifteen fathoms of chain rode rattling into the black water announces her arrival. Reversing hard into the draw of the anchor digging in, she pulls up short and knows the anchor is set. Motor off, she lets the catenary pull of the rode drift her forward again, with the chain making a satisfying bubbling hiss as it sinks back into the inky water. She rocks gently back and forth, eventually coming to rest, her bow rounding into what little breeze remains from the day.

Dinner that night is served in the cockpit.........'

Catenary curve/pull:
Catenary is a word which describes the mathematical nature of a certain curve, comparable with other terms such as parabola and hyperbola. While the path of a football kicked into the air is a parabola, a catenary is seen in the real world when a flexible line hangs between two points. It is the effect of gravity, a uniformly directional force, acting along its length. A typical example is the chain and rope connecting your anchor to your boat.

This catenary has the convenient effect of lowering the effective angle of pull on the anchor, which is the positive result we are striving for. Clearly, the heavier the rode, the better this effect, and the greater the pull will need to be to negate it (i.e. to pull the rode straight). Hence, the lore is to use heavy chain behind the anchor.

Extract and images courtesy Rocna Knowledge Base

You can read more about these and other weather phenomena in my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana' downloadable from my website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com

Fibreglass Repair Work for Sailboats

Several years ago I bumped into some coral in the dark whilst attempting to park one New Years' Eve in the very crowded anchorage at Mustique in the 'Grenadines' of the Caribbean Windward Islands. My yacht drew 2.05 metres and in the process of navigating our way throught the one hundred other sailboats at anchor for the New Year celebrations, the forward bottom edge of the keel hit some coral.

Fortunately we were feeling our way in at not much more than one knot, but the impact and resulting grinding sound sent the heart rate skyrocketing. I knew that the keel was solidly constructed and we had nothing to worry about, but also knew that on return to Rodney Bay Marina, she would have to be lifted and the damage repaired.

Out of the water we inspected the damage and having time on my hands I elected to tackle this task myself. In the event it was relatively easy with the main difficulty being fairing down the cured glass to exactly the right shape. With an electric grinder and fine sander and a good dollop of patience this was achieved so that the finished job, once antifouled again, was indistinguishable from the original. Gazing at the finished job with great satisfaction I came to the conclusion that a lot of these jobs that we automatically call in the experts for, could on many occasions, be achieved by ourselves. From that moment on I resolved to follow this path in the future with, in the main, very satisfactory results.

A p.s to that Mustique trip was that some weeks later visiting there again after all the New Year revellers had departed we happened into the Cotton House bar which was virtually empty except for two figures at the dim far end of the room. Who were they? without dropping any names, they were two very famous band leaders who own property on the island.

Getting back to the subject of fibreglassing, I have come across a very thoughtful book on the subject and written by Roger Marshall.

The following is an extract from www.seabreeze.com 'yachting' section:

'Fibreglass repairing - not as difficult as we thought' .
Doing your own fibreglassing has in the past an exercise that many an otherwise handy yacht owner has shied away from.

However, a new publication just might contain all you need to know to carry out a repair to that latest fibreglass damage on your boat, instead of calling in the professionals.

The cost of the book may be recoverable hundreds of times over if you have the time, the inclination and the bravery to have a go.

Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated, available at some chandleries and bookstores but also online this month, is a comprehensive guide to making repairs to a fibreglass boat and how to finish and paint those repairs.

Written by Roger Marshall, winner of numerous awards for marine technical and magazine writing and author of 14 nautical books, the nine chapters of Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated include:

Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated - all you need to know:
1. How a fibreglass boat is built, identifying hull damage
2. materials, tools and basic techniques; gelcoat restoration;
3. Making minor repairs
4. Making major repairs
5. Hull, keel and rudder fairing
6. Identifying and making osmosis repairs and
7. Finishing and painting a repair job.

Then there is an appendix on building a temporary Shrink WrapT shed in which to do boat repair work year-round.

With more than 200 pictures and drawings, the book shows repair projects as done by the author and other professional and amateur boat builders, from simply polishing the gelcoat or repairing a ding in the paint work, to much larger projects such as making a transom well guard to keep water from flooding over the transom.

The most ambitious project is a complete hull and keel reconstruction on a boat that went aground and was seriously damaged.

Fiberglass Boat Repairs Illustrated is published by International Marine/McGraw-Hill. It's a paperback of some 192 pages, and it sells for just US $24.95 - not bad if it will save you the cost of those expensive professionals.

Extract courtesy seabreeze.com

You can read more about hull repair and glassing whilst cruising in my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana' downloadable from my website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com

Concordia Sinking by Microburst Sad Loss for Trainee Sailors

The recent sinking off the Brazil coast of the Canadian training vessel 'Concordia' is a sad and shocking loss, not only to the sail training world and all sailors everywhere, but also to the 'Tall Ships' organisations around the world.

She was a beautiful example of a sailing ship and under full sail evoked the high romance of the 'age of sail'.

Fortunately no lives were lost which is a testament to the excellent ' at sea' drills in which the crew and students had been trained.

Obviously in time a full investigation and report into the incident will be forthcoming, but in the meantime here is an extract from the first interview of Captain William Curry:

"The ship's captain, William Curry, has said although the Concordia's crew had prepared the day before for what they anticipated would be rough weather, the ship suddenly keeled.

When it keeled again the ship's sails were exposed to the powerful wind and within 15 seconds the boat was lying on its side and began to sink. The captain said it slipped beneath the waves 30 minutes later.

Curry called it a miracle that everyone on board made it into rafts and survived after the Concordia apparently experienced a weather phenomenon known as a "microburst" - a sudden, violent downdraft of wind - that instantly crippled the vessel Wednesday.

Sawyer said he hadn't heard of the phenomenon before, but that investigators would get expert opinion on it."

Extract courtesy Winnipeg Free Press

This term of 'microburst' in relation to weather was a new one on me as well, so I thought we would take a look at this weather phenomenon.

Anyone who has an interest in flying would know what 'wind shear' is and it would appear that a 'microburst' is the event that would cause it.

The following item comes from wikipedia:

The term was defined by senior weather expert Tetsuya Theodore Fujita as affecting an area 4 km (2.5 mi) in diameter or less, distinguishing them as a type of downburst and apart from common wind shear which can encompass greater areas. Fujita also coined the term macroburst for downbursts larger than 4 km (2.5 mi), a scale of size known as the mesoscale.

A distinction can be made between a wet microburst which consists of precipitation and a dry microburst which consists of 'virga'. They generally are formed by precipitation-cooled air rushing to the surface, but they perhaps also could be powered from the high speed winds of the jet stream deflected to the surface in a thunderstorm (see downburst).

Microbursts are recognized as capable of generating wind speeds higher than 75 m/s (168 mph; 270 km/h).

Dry microburst:
When rain falls below cloud base or is mixed with dry air, it begins to evaporate and this evaporation process cools the air. The cool air descends and accelerates as it approaches the ground. When the cool air approaches the ground, it spreads out in all directions and this divergence of the wind is the signature of the microburst. High winds spread out in this type of pattern showing little or no curvature are known as straight-line winds.

Dry microbursts, produced by high based thunderstorms that generate little surface rainfall, occur in environments characterized by a thermodynamic profile exhibiting an inverted-V at thermal and moisture profile, as viewed on a Skew-T log-P thermodynamic diagram. (Wakimoto, 1985) developed a conceptual model (over the High Plains of the United States) of a dry microburst environment that comprised three important variables: mid-level moisture, a deep and dry adiabatic lapse rate in the sub-cloud layer, and low surface relative humidity.

Wet microburst:

Wet microbursts are downbursts accompanied by significant precipitation at the surface which are warmer than their environment (Wakimoto, 1998). These downbursts rely more on the drag of precipitation for downward acceleration of parcels than negative buoyancy which tend to drive "dry" microbursts. As a result, higher mixing ratios are necessary for these downbursts to form (hence the name "wet" microbursts). Melting of ice, particularly hail, appears to play an important role in downburst formation (Wakimoto and Bringi, 1988), especially in the lowest one kilometer above ground level (Proctor, 1989). These factors, among others, make forecasting wet microbursts a difficult task.

Extract courtesy Wikipedia

So, you can imagine then the Concordia sailing along under reduced sail - she was sailing under topsails only - in moderate conditions and suddenly being hit by this microburst, heeling over, the downdraft filling her topsails and pushing the vessel further over until she was in a full knockdown situation. With the mast and topsails in the water and being held down, the sails would immediately fill with water, adding to the overall inertia. From there, the stricken ship could not right herself, and sank very quickly.

It must have been a sad and shocking sight for the crew and trainees watching their home of a few minutes before slipping from sight so rapidlly.

There will be many lessons learnt from this incident and the final report will be anticipated with great interest - I only trust it does not develop into a witch hunt into the captain and crew, who, in the event were responsible for a miraculous saving of the lives of all souls on board.

Finally, the good news is that a sister ship will be built to continue the training tradition of the Class Afloat sail training school in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.

You can read more about unusual weather phenomena and heavy weather sailing in my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana' downloadable from my website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com