Happiness is ........

Perhaps you are wondering what it is like to be out at sea for days, for
weeks, for months even, without seeing land. The longest stretch I've had
was 56 days. On other occasions I have sailed from Gibraltar to Sicily in
four days, and the next time it took us three weeks, beating relentlessly
against the beasterly easterlies. Sailing within 10 nautical miles of the
North African coast, tack(changing direction +- 90 degrees), sail 50 miles
away from the coast and then tack back again. On an average run one can
expect to make 150nm towards your destination in a day, on that occasion
we were gaining 40nm a day. How does one provision for such occasions ?
How do you make sure you have enough water ? In general we carry 700 ltrs
of water in our watertanks and then another 300ltrs in smaller drums.
Obviously we use water very sparingly. When we cook pasta or rice we use
1/3rd seawater and 2/3rds fresh water. The salt content is then perfect,
and you save a substantial amount of water like that. There's not much
dust and dirt out here so we don't shower every day. No need to. And when
it rains, we have means of catching the water and filling whatever we can
with fresh rainwater, and shower to our heart's content. Very often it
looks as if it will rain for a while, you grab your shampoo and shower
gel, get all soaped up, and the rain stops. This happens ore often than
not. We also use seawater to wash ourselves with and then rinse the
seawater with a bit of freshwater. And when we shower with fresh water we
do what is called a navy shower. Quickly wet yourself and turn the water
off. Then lather yourself before having a quick rinse. No long showers
ever for us out on the ocean. Some boats have desalinators or watermakers,
using seawater to make freshwater. It filters out most minerals as well
and some watermakers actualy replace some of these minerals. I rate any
yacht club or marina firstly by there showers :)

Next on our survival list comes food. ETA stands for estimated time of
arrival, and you try and estimate how long it should take you, and how
long it could take you. How many crew you have on board, and how much each
one normally eats. I am not a big eater, but some of the thinnest dudes
I've had the pleasure of sailing with also had some of the biggest
appetites I have seen. And a stretch that can take anything from four days
to three weeks makes it rather difficult to estimate. So we always go for
the latter. And should we not use all the food, we give it away once we
arrive at our destination. Fresh produce don't last all that long. For
fresh greens we sometimes sprout all types of seeds and beans. At times we
are fortunate to catch fish, but the sea is not full of fish, contrary to
the popular saying. Fish we can also dry out here, no flies etc to spoil
it. We normally process the freshly caught fish and freeze some in Jiffy
bags. To cook our food we use gas, and once again it is tricky to estimate
how much gas to take with. We conserve gas by adding the exact amount of
water in the kettle to make a cup of coffee or tea for example. When you
run out of gas you may have a microwave on board which you can then also
use.

Which brings us to the next question. How much diesel do you carry. Once
again on average we carry 700ltrs in our tanks, and then whatever extra
you want to take in smaller drums. If you run out of diesel you are also
in big trouble. All our instruments run of batteries, and to charge the
batteries we use diesel. If you no longer have battery power, you have no
way of communicating, whether by satelite phone or VHF, which is a very
high frequency radio transmitter and receiver. No GPS either. For this
very reason we always carry our own handheld GPS and extra batteries, and
paper charts. And should the GPS system for whatever reason be turned off,
we also have ways and means of estimation our position using the sun,
moon, planets and stars. "Man, the navigator" is a fascinating book that
explores the way ancient mariners, especially the Polynesians, navigated
their way across vast expanses of ocean.

And then there are also storms and ships and potential underwater hazards
you have to take into consideration. And then crew dynamics. Living in
close quarters for extended periods of time can be taxing on anyone. You
may now wonder why on earth anyone would want to do something like this.
And on top of it some people get seasick as well from the motion of the
ocean. I guess I wonder why some people become dentists, or prostitutes,
or accountants, or lawyers, or prison wardens, or miners, or soldiers and
so I can go on and on. I guess it takes all sorts of people to make the
world go round, figuratively speaking. I really do not judge any of the
above professions. I am a jack of many trades, and master of some. I am
fortunate to have a passion for what I do, for being out here on the ocean
wide. Even at school I use to sit and stare out of the window at the
clouds, especially in the maths class :) Biology fascinated me on the
other side. With maths I did enough to pass, I excelled in the natural
sciences. A song by Supertramp comes to mind, or rather some of the lyrics
in the song. Dreamer........nothing but a dreamer. And then The Logical
Song by the same band.

Staring at the clouds there are some wisps of cirrus clouds forming,
telling me that there are stronger winds coming soon. Late yesterday
afternoon the wind at times would get to up to 20kts, and the sea was a
bit lumpy, swell coming from this side and that side. I was wondering if I
should drop the gennekar, and as usual, when a thought like that comes to
mind, I react immediately. It has been my saving grace on many occasions.
Even though we have some time to make up, throwing all caution to the wind
has never been my strong suite. We dropped the gennekar and sailed with
two headsails out front throughout the night. Lost a bit of pure speed,
but also conserved our gennekar as she does not like being thrown around
by a bouncy sea. This morning the sea was more settled and decided to
raise the gennekar again. And we are flying. My weather guru predicted
stronger winds for Friday, and the signs are visible. Not stormy weather,
just stronger :) In the interim, we are doing exceedingly well out here.
Fair winds and following seas. Just the way we like it. In the next few
days we will reach the Brazilian coast. And running up the coast at the
2000 mt contour line we always get excellent current, which will assist us
tremendously in our quest to go as fast and as safe as possible.

Had a good laugh at Thibault this morning. He warmed up some left-over
pasta for us, and as he turned away for a moment or two I added a few
drops of Tabasco to his pasta, and mine as well. He then added some pasta
spice and went outside to enjoy his little meal. Soon he came in and
looked at the ingredients of the pasta spice with a frown on his face. I
asked him what the matter was and he explained that there was a slight
burning taste in his pasta which was not there yesterday, slightly
perplexed :) The smile on my face must have been a dead give away, and I
informed him that I added a few drops of Tabasco, by accident, to his
pasta. He sighed relieved knowing now where this little burning sensation
came from. Even the bit of Tabasco could not take away the very happy
smile on his face caused by receiving mail from the love of his life on a
little hill just outside Lyon, France. Merci beaucoup Helen ! Stuart is
outside tending to his dreadlocks and I am now ready to sign off and take
over watch. Lovely conditions for helming. If you don't know what that
means, it means I turn off the autopilot and steer the boat myself for a
while. Nice swells running from a slight angle, good steady winds from the
same angle. Perfect conditions to play a bit, surf a bit, and keep our
catamaran purring with delight.

Wishing you a lovely day.

Paul