Day 6 - Pacific Crossing - 28th March

The last couple of postings have been pretty techie. I'll try to avoid that tonight.

So what is it like doing a night watch on Mehalah?

When we have four people on board the day is nominally split into 12 2 hour watches with everyone taking turns. We find two hours at a time works best for us as with four people it means you really only have one two hour stretch each when you have to be awake at night. Sometimes we will make the more informal day watches three hours each. This means the same person does not always get the nasty 2am to 4am watch.

However with just the two of us two hour watches make no sense. We would be getting up again almost as soon as we had gone to bed. So at present we are doing three hours at a time. Long enough so the other person gets a reasonable sleep and short enough so you can see the end when you begin. We might extend them later but for now it's 3 hours at a time.

Let's suppose my 3 hour watch is due to begin at 3am. This is a good watch because I will see the dawn coming up behind us as the watch comes to an end. I will be asleep in the starboard settee berth in the saloon where I can quickly get up and join Gill in the cockpit if required. At about 02.55 Gill will gently call down that my watch is due to start shortly. I groan and force my eyes open, unhook the lee cloth that stops me falling out if it is rough and put on my life jacket. Time for a quick wee then up the steps to the cockpit, clipping my life jacket to a strong point as I enter. Gill will give me an update on the wind, the course, any traffic to watch, significant mileage achievements and anything exciting that happened during her watch. Maybe dolphins came to play or mars was very bright (like tonight). Then it's goodnight, Gill will check if I need anything (snack, drink etc) and I'm on my own. My jobs are to watch out for any ships, to trim the sails, complete an entry in the log, watch the instruments and to monitor any weather changes or developing issues deciding when to call Gill to help. In practice on a passage like the current one there is not much to do. We've see no ships since we left Galapagos waters either visually or on our AIS system which will pick up vessels up to 50 miles away. The issues I have detailed previously. Every 30 minutes or so I'll get up and scan round the horizon for ships. Not every vessel has AIS. Even though we are in equatorial waters it will be chilly so I'll be wearing a fleece. I may read a Kindle book, listen to a podcast or just watch the stars. I spend a lot of time watching the instruments too. If our course changes I need to pull on one of the wind steering lines to readjust our course. Sometimes the time passes quickly, sometimes not. There's always water to drink and time to think about people back home or other boats on passage. By 5.30 the sky will start to lighten behind the boat and only the bright planets will remain. The top of the sun will creep above the horizon usually as an orange ball and a new day will begin. I might let Gill sleep in for a bit and then it is my turn to call her. And so it continues.

Just a quick techie note to finish. Dropping the main and launching the parasailor which yesterday took 3 hours took just 38 minutes today. It went without a hitch.

Oh yes, and our good friends Kevin and Shawna on Meraki 2 arrived in Hiva Oa, our destination, this morning. Their daughter, her husband and young children sailed there too in their own boat from Mexico, arriving yesterday. What a reunion they will have had. And to complete the circle Kevin and Mary on Pisces arrived this morning in Galapagos which we ourselves left almost a week ago.



email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com