Tracking a Storm

When coastal cruising, storms are easy to track thanks to a plethora of options presented to you. On the technological side, you can pull up radar apps that will show you the storms and all the information about them. For a more low tech method, you can look at the clouds and their relationship to the landmarks beneath them. Watching the clouds move over buildings or mountains will let you see which way the storm is moving and advise you on the steps you need to take.

If the storm is moving away from you, just keep an eye on it and make sure that it continues to leave you alone. If the storm is stationary, continue to watch it and preferably sail away from it. If the storm is coming at you, either seek a safe harbor or reef down in preparation for the storm.

Now, all of these options disappear on the ocean. There is no "weather app" or internet to display information on your palm sized super computer. There are no landmarks to watch the clouds movements, making tracking a storm seem almost like black magic!

Thankfully, there is something on the open ocean that you can use to track a storm, something better than a wave or a sea bird, your compass. You want to pick a defining feature in the storm, such as the edge of the rain curtain, or the edge of the shelf cloud, or the towering spire that will become a squall cloud. Once you have a "cloud feature" identified, figure out its bearing to you on the compass and keep tabs on it. Over time, it should change bearings to you, which would indicate that it is moving either left or right of you. If it is not changing in bearing to you, it could either be stationary or moving closer to you. This is only distinguishable by seeing if the clouds look closer to you than they did before.

For example: a nasty squall cloud is on your port side. The clouds left edge is at 180 and the clouds right edge is at 210 on the compass. Five minutes later, the left edge is at 190 and the ridge edge is at 220. A little while later, its from 200 to 230. This means that the squall is moving laterally and away from you. Since you have a bearing to it and a heading for the storm, you can easily plot a route that will take you around the storm and avoid dealing with those conditions while out in the open ocean.

While it may seem frightening to not be able to hide from a storm on the ocean, it's really not that bad! You have an uninterrupted view of the horizon in all directions, and storm clouds are big and tall. You will see them hundreds of miles away, allowing you to track them and figure out where to sail to avoid dealing with them. Since you are on the open ocean, there is no reef, pass, or channel that is restricting your direction and point of sail. Getting off course for a few minutes is inconsequential as it is very easy to get back on course once the system has passed.

Ocean sailing may seem daunting, but in reality it is very relaxing and easy. All you have to do is keep an eye on the weather around you and plan accordingly.

Synthetic Standing Rigging and Quality of Sleep

When you think about rigging, quality of sleep is probably the last detail on your mind. If you plan to do any kind of passage making, quality of sleep should become a priority in your desired attributes list for your rigging. Remember, the headstay attached right above the V-berth in the forward cabin!

Steel rigging with hank on sails or roller furling sails will present a problem to (trying to) sleep off-watch crew. The foil of the furler will constantly tap and shimmy on the stay, making constant racket that is transmitted right over their head! Bronze hanks are just as offensive in anything but high winds.

Bronze hanks in high winds will sit still and quiet down, but anything else will cause the hanks to shimmy and twist on the steel stay making a grating sound that will keep everyone under it awake!

Synthetic headstays are rope and not metal, making it quieter in terms of noise transmission. Then, to protect against chafe, the sail needs to be fitted with soft hanks which look like webbing straps that relocate the bronze hank to the side of the sail. Soft hanks on a synthetic headstay are completely silent!

The sail can be luffing, twisting, shimmying, anything; and the off-watch crew in the V-berth will sleep peacefully under the silence of the synthetic headstay.

Ocean Crossing and Chafe

Ocean sailing differs greatly from coastal cruising. In a coastal situation, you can afford to be risky. You can fly too much sail, heel over too far, maybe even push the envelope of what the yacht is capable of. If something breaks, the penalty is rather costly and small, as a repair facility is always at hand. Should your mast break, a sail tear, or a sheet part, the result is the same: the boat broke and will be fixed promptly at a nearby facility.

In the ocean, there is no nearby facility. If something on the boat breaks, you are left to your own devices to repair it. Carrying too much sail can risk tearing the sails with no sail loft for a thousand miles and no way of getting your yacht to shore! Setting the sails against the rigging will also cause them to chafe, and that will lead to a gash forming in the sail cloth.

On a deep broad reach or run, you may be tempted to ease the main all the way out and let it drape against the rigging, but each wave and puff of wind will cause the sail to shimmy up and down on the stay, sawing through the cloth.

Instead of trimming the sails to perfection, it is more important to trim the sails to longevity. Keep them set in a way that they do not contact any part of the boat or rigging. This will keep them from chafing and will almost guarantee that your sails will make it across the ocean and be ready to carry you back home when the time comes.

This might not be the fastest way, nor the most efficient, but it certainly is the safest and most frugal way to trim your sails.

Pig Beach

No, this isn't a photo from a farm, this is on the beach near Staniel Cay.

The original pigs were shrouded in mystery, as no one knew for sure where they came from. The current pigs are brought over from Nassau as they have become a tourist attraction. Pigs do surcomb to disease and die from time to time, and they are replaced with a new pig to keep the pig population going. That being said, the pigs are doing their own part to keep their numbers up. These little piglets were going to town as they feasted upon their mother.

The pigs do enjoy a different lifestyle from their agrarian counterparts, as they live on a beach and often go for swims in the pristine waters. There is a freshwater spring in the island, but the pigs prefer to stay on the beach where tourists bring them food. This has led to the locals providing them fresh water on their beach front villa. 

The pigs will come out into the water when a tour boat arrives, because they know tourists are going to bring them lots of tasty snacks! 

It was fun to watch the pigs swim with superyachts in the background. 

While the big pigs like to go swimming, the smaller piglets seemed content to hang out under the bushes. Keeping cool in the shade as they sleep the day away with full bellies from all the tourist handouts. 

Day 18

The stars wrap all the way around this disk of ocean and we're floating in the very center. They almost touch the horizon. Slight wisps of nebula swirls around them and they grow by the thousands the longer I stare. And I can't stop staring. Leo roars at Venus to my left. Ursas major and minor are fully visible to the right of Leo. And behind me there's the ever dependable Scorpio and Libra with Jupiter and Saturn on either side. I keep opening my eyes wider as though this action could help me take in more of the sky at once, but I still find myself sitting up and swirling my head around as far as my neck will allow on all sides. I never want to forget this feeling. This feeling of being nothing more than a pair of eyes in the center of everything.