Waiting

Sailing to Bermuda has been a relatively easy sail in the grand scheme of things. We have had light airs, steady airs, and a little bit of heavy airs, but they have had a steady direction in all cases. For the past two days we have been flying the staysail and double reeder mainsail as we bear to windward.

The monitor windvane has been steering us religiously as close to the wind as we can point while the sails power us along.

It just feels like this tiny island is so close yet so far as we sit here with only waves on the horizon. The sun comes up, the sun goes down, and only waves are in view.

We currently have only 70 miles left to the harbor in Bermuda, but it still feels like forever! All of us on board are planning what we want to eat when we get on shore, but the truth is we only see water as we continue to wait.

Waiting, the most common activity on a blue water passage.

Two Important Items for Ocean Cruising

If you are outfitting a sailboat for blue water cruising, the two most important items that you can add, in my opinion, are:

1. A drifter
2. A Monitor Windvane

A drifter is a light air sail cut like a genoa but made out of spinnaker material. This sail will keep you ghosting along on windless days. It even managed to pull us through the doldrums! When choosing your yachts sail wardrobe, be sure to include a drifter (and forget about a spinnaker).

The second important item is the Monitor Windvane. This unit will steer you to a set angle to the wind in all conditions. If the wind shifts, it will change your course to keep your sails trimmed perfectly and prevent them from luffing. While the prospect of changing course might seem bad, when you are offshore it's not a big deal. Your destination is hundreds or thousands of miles away, veering a little to port or starboard for a few hours will not make a difference.

Now, be sure to get a Monitor and not one of the other brands like Hydrovane or Cape Horn. Hydrovane will quickly be overpowered and overwhelmed as the wind builds. Cape Horn works just like a Monitor, but all of the control lines are hidden away making it hard to frequently inspect for chafe.

Now, I can't say which of these two items is more valuable than the other for ocean cruising. Honestly, both items should be carried that way you can move on light days and relax as your yacht sails itself across the ocean with you onboard.

Easy Headsail Change with Staysail

I would say that the staysail on a cutter is the most useful sail aboard. Not only does it help balance the sailplan, but it also facilitates headsail changes.

If the wind picks up and you need to lower your jib, genoa, or drifter onto the deck, having a staysail set will make your life easier.

Without a staysail, the wind will pull the sail off the deck and into the water. Now you have to wrestle with a wet sail in building winds!

With a staysail present, all you need to do is pull the headsails lazy sheet under the foot of the staysail as you lower the halyard.

The headsail will be pulled up against the staysail and get sucked to the leeward side of it, completely de-powering the sail as it is lowered. As you pull the sail down and under the foot, the sail will come to rest on the deck. Once you have enough of the sail under the staysail's foot, you can drop the rest of the sail with ease and it will fall squarely on the deck and be ready to be tied and bagged.

Perspective

Crossing an ocean on a sailboat gives you plenty of time to sit, read, and think. My current book, Fabric of the Cosmos, is an excellent book to read on a crossing because each chapter is so profound and mind bending that you will need to sit around and think to mentally digest that one short chapter.

Ironically, the chapter I read today is about perspective and space. What is space? And what determines what a space is? What determines who is moving in a space?

A wonderful example given in the book is about a person on a boat (very fitting as I sit here 500 miles out to sea) who drops a coin. The coin falls straight down and lands on his shoe. Therefore, the boat, sailor, and coin, are all stationary and it is the sea that is rushing past them and not the boat rushing through the sea.

This concept that we are stationary and the world is rushing past is so apt at explaining what it feels like to be on a sailboat crossing an ocean. You sit in the cockpit or maybe you stretch out on the deck, but you are always on the boat. Everywhere you look, you see waves all the way out to the horizon with nothing else in view. You are alone in the center of your visible world. Clouds appear on the horizon, some move away, some move towards you. Day in and day out, the view is always the same and you are always sitting on the boat looking out at the exact same waves.

We left land about 15 days ago and spend a significant amount of time ghosting across the doldrums (I recommend avoiding the doldrums if you are in a hurry). The doldrums live up to their fame: totally calm with the ocasional whisper of wind. Sunrise and sunsets were amazing times when the sky and sea blended together into a surreal pastel painting. It was hard to believe that it was real! But it was there before your eyes and visible uninterrupted in all directions.

After so many days, especially after days of hardly moving, you really do feel stationary. You exist at the center of your visible world and other items come and go from it. Cargo ships will appear on the horizon and then disappear just as quietly. Clouds will grow, rainbows shimmer, and then the blue sky will return, but you are still in the center of this world that doesn't move.

From our perspective, we are just sitting here waiting, waiting for the next island to enter our visible world and approach the bow of our boat so we may anchor near it. Eventually, we will raise anchor and the island will drift away as a new landmass will approach us, begging for us to explore it too.

Are we crossing an ocean or are we waiting for the ocean to cross under us?

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.