Ships, squalls and atholls

Just after sunset we were about 15nm south of Fenando Do Noronha.
Expecting some potentialshipping traffic we had our navlights for the
first time in a quite a while. I took over watch from Eduan at midnight
and half an hour later I spotted a ship, coming across us right on a
collision course. I radioed the ship and informed them that I will alter
course slightly and pass on their stern. On our point of sail it was a
bit difficult as we were on a broad reach and turning to starboard to
much would take the wind out of the headsail and she would start
flogging. An early change of course gave us just enough room to
manoeuvre in and we passed about a mile from the stern of the ship.

It dawned on me yesterday afternoon that our speed at which we are
sailing will afford us to have a closer look at Atholl Dos Rochas and
after passing Fernando we altered course slightly and expected to pass
the atholl between 8 and 10 this morning. We wanted to go a bit closer
but conditions were slightly rough for a swim and we just sailed pass.
We were in radio coms with four marine biologists from Brazil who is
here for a month long research project. They were very happy to chat to us
and we shared some pleasantries. Being from Brazil I informed themthat we
are from South Africa and we think they should learn to play soccer. All
four of them apparently play soccer and we challenged them to a game of
beach soccer. They laughed and informed us that they have a lot of work to
do. Anyway, we could go ashore as it is a protected marine reserve, the
conditions weren'y conducive. Swimming ashore would also be rather
foolish. In asked them what species of sharks they have at the atholl and
it was the expected grey shark and gully shark, and then more unexpected
a type of bull shark,white tip open ocean shark and tiger shark. The last
three are known for their unfriendly behaviour towards humans under
certain conditions. Make no mistake, I love sharks and they are truly
beautiful, but there are times when you shouldn't get too close to them.

To time our ETA at the atholl I furled in the genoa a bit as the wind
started to pick up a bit. The sea became a bit boisterous and ten minutes
later we were hit by our first squall of the trip. Our apparent wind
topped at twenty and we were sailing fast but safe at about 10kts. I was
thankful that I had furled in the headsail ten minutes before as the true
wind speed was 30kts. I have a holy respect for these sudden storms that
creep up on you at night as I have been through some serious storms
before, having had to fight for our lifes with everything I had. It rained
just a little bit and ten minutes later the storm had passed over. When
Nick came on watch after me I informed him of what happened on my watch
and handed the boat over to him. I was asleep for maybe 45 minutes when I
heard the props of the boat starting to whine, a sure sign of another
squall coming over. In a flash I was out and sat with Nick for a while as
the second storm passed over us. This time it rained quite a bit and the
wind peaked at about 23 apparent and boat speed at about 12kts. A
little more intense than the previous one. A couple of windshifts also
happen before, during and after squalls and he learned a bit about storm
tactics.

We are making great progress towards Fortaleza and expect to arrive there
sometime tomorrow night. If we are lucky we will get in just before the
sun sets. Having just experienced Atholl Dos rochas again, a most pristine
example of natural beauty, it once again reminded me on what a beautiful
planet we live. Gaia, as some of us call her, our beloved Mother Nature,
our Nurturer, that what our bodies came from and will go back to. And the
way we have been treating her, us as a human species. Or rather exploiting
and just taking things for granted. I have been reminded of the green
issues we are faced with, the challenges we are confronted with. My eight
year old daughter has a firm grasp of that there is no away. You can't
throw anything away. If you ask her to throw something away she will ask
where away is. It is just moving stuff away from you but there is no away.
I have to start at the core of what I think is needed for our planet. We
once again have to respect ourselves and our planet, realize the
sacredness and the oneness of us all. We are part of our planet and our
planet is part of us. For the next few blogs we will look at some of these
issues and how they tie in with body, mind, spirit and soul. How fear and
greed have robbed us blind, and how we can turn the tide.

Nautical term for today is 'Out of the Blue'. The totally unexpected.
Short for'out of a clear blue sky' and is an analogy to a sudden change in
the weather when, from a good breeze under a cloud dappled blue sky, a
demon squall can appear and wreak havoc on the ship. Probably the best
documented example of this was in the spring of 1878 when HMS Eurydice was
on the last few miles of her journey home to Portsmouth from Bermuda. The
day was calm, the weather was sunny, all sails were set, all ports and
windows were open and all men on duty were relaxing on deck. Then without
warning a dark cloud appeared, a squall struck and Eurydice went down with
368 men. Within half an hour the weather was perfect again.

At night it is even more difficult to spot a squall catching up on you. It
is terefore prudent to expect squalls,fly lesser sails and sacrifice speed
for safety. We received a radio call from a ship a few days ago re a yacht
that send of an emergency signal via their epirb. The position they gave
us is close to where we are now and I am starting to form an idea of what
might have happened to the sailors. But you can also not expect to cross
oceans without expecting a few storms on the way. This is part of what
keeps us humble, respectful and watchful. Some of us anyway. The rest pay
the ultimate price.

Our position at 10am our time, UTC - 2 or 14h00 SA time is
03*49'S/034*02'W. We are 260nm from Fortaleza and at our current speed it
will take us 32 hrs, so yes, we are sailing fast, but not gunning it.

Wishing a pleasant day and week ahead.

Captain Paul

Sailing hard

I plotted our position this morning and saw that we have two obstacles
directly in line with Fortaleza. Fernando Do Noronha and 50 miles
further Atholl Das Rochas. I changed our course a bit to give these two
beautiful features a wide berth. It resulted in us sailing on a broad
reach closer to a beam reach and our speed has increased considerably. I
have been to those these places before and both are awesome beyond
words. We did a night entry into Fernando Do Noronha and the currents
were very tricky. We will pass them some time tonight but no stopping
this time. They have no ferry service there and to get water to the boat
is nigh impossible.

Looks like we will arrive at Fortaleza on Tuesday night late, or perhaps
we will slow down just a bit and make an early morning entry. I have
done a few night entries there and there are millions of lights ashore
and hundreds of little fishing boats bobbing about at night. Depending
on what speed we maintain I will make a call when we are much closer.
Steven will get a change to take us into the marina and learn how to do
this Mediterranean style mooring. You drop your anchor and the go
backwards towards the walk-on. When you are close enough one of the crew
jumps off and the other crew passes the mooring lines.The anchor chain
must be tight by this time and you have to drag the anchor a bit to
position your stern and tie down. Sounds easy enough, but the tricky
part is that the wind normally is blowing from the side and pushing you
off. Which means you have to come in at an angle to counteract the
windage. One of the most difficult manouvres to pull off. I will be
standing by his side to guide him through the process.

Last night we had some visitors on board, a noisy bunch until they
settled in for the night. Five sooty terns if I have the name correct,
medium sized black birds with webbed feet,scavengers of the ocean. The
normally follow scholls of bonnies or tuna and when the fish are feeding
on smaller fish these birds pick up the morsels floating around. They
are fairly tame birds and you can get real close to them before they
start getting a bit wary. They enjoyed our company so much that they
stayed till about 8 o'clock our time with the sun long time up already.
They normally fly away as soon as it gets light again.

Nicks turn to cook tonight and he is becoming a master at doing magic
with chicken. He probably would have preferred fish and who knows, the
day is still a puppy. Eduan nearly had a mishap last night. Busy tying a
gybe preventer on he was leaning over the safety rails when the boat
lurched a bit as a wave went through under us. He got a big fright and
fortunately he learned a very valuable lesson. Always respect the ocean
and always expect the unexpected. I had a few gentle words with him and
the other crew this morning, just iterating the rules of safety on board
a yacht. And the main one is to stay aboard.

Our position at UTC - 2 this morning, 2 pm SA time was 04*04'S/031*02'W.
We are 440 nm from Fortaleza.

Hope you have a superb Sunday.

Captain Paul

On attitude, latitude and longitude

Just a little posting today to give you our position, our disposition
and some food for thought, albeit not from me but oh so true. In case
you don't want to read further and just want our position it was
04*18'S/028*22'W. We are 600nm from Fortaleza and if conditions prevail
we will arrive there on Tuesday afternoon. We have sailed up to a
position just east of Fortaleza on a run, and have now turned straight
towards Fortaleza on a broad reach. No longer two headsails, mainsail
second reef and genoa first reef and we are doing exceedingly well. The
boat and sails are nicley balanced and we are making the most of the
cards we are dealt with. Nick has just let the lure out again and we can
now turn around much faster should we get a strike, simply just tack.
Sounds simple but there are a few tricks involved in making it fast and
smooth. Hoping for a few reasons that we will have to do this, one to
teach the crew something new about sailing and two to land a fish. The
following was send to me and I would love to share it with you, so here
we go.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life,
Attitude to me, is more important than facts.
it is more important than the past, than education,than money,than
circumstances.than failures,than success. than what other people think
or
say or do.
it is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a person a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice everydag regarding the attitude
we
will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past.
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and that is
our
ATTITUDE.
I AM CONVINCED THAT LIFE IS 10% WHAT happens to me and 90% how I react
to
it.
and so it is with you

Troubles come to all of us, it's a natural part of life. The most
important
thing of all is how we respond to them.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Captain Paul

And another one bites the dust

We had a hook-up, the bucket went in, the danbouy went flying it's flag,
all hands on deck, we dropped the loose headsail, then furled in the
main headsail, then started the motor and turned the boat around and
started looking for the red and orange flag which was by this time far
behind us. Just turned the boat right around and started backtracking,
binoculars scanning the horizon. Into the wind and swell we eventually
spotted the flag and another ten minutes or so we were at the flag. At
the time of the hook-up Nick was on watch and woke me up with some
urgency. We watched the billfish jumping and furiously slapping his tail
in the water, making big splashes dragging the drum and danbouy behind
him. Time of hook-up was exactly 09:15 our time which would make it
about 13h15 your time as our time is now four hours behind you. We were
shouting from the thrill of thinking that this time we had it.

When we got to the the drum and danbouy we thought the fish must be
tired as there was not much drag on the line.Huge was our disapointment
when we retrieved the line and found the line chafed through, the hook
off and the fish gone. Immediatly back to the drawing board I asked
Steven to braid us a length of trace using three strands and tieed this
onto the hook and through the lure which was still on. A little blue and
white lure that I specified and Nick tied on this morning. An hour later
and we are back on track, our sails aflying and our lure looking for
some unwary denizen of the deep.

Nick is busy making some cupcakes at the moment, Steven is on watch and
just made us some 2miinute noodles for lunch and Eduan is having a nap
outside in the shade. It is now nearly 30*C here by us, wonder what will
happen when we go 10* higher. Myself once again humbled and thankful for
the opportunity to try harder, stretch my brain a bit and take it to the
max, once again. If this doesn't work I will get some steel trace cable
or wire from my amigo Armando in Fortaleza.

Long walk to freedom

This morning finds us still sailing and sailing faster and faster.The
wind direction is also starting to come around and curving us nicely in
to Fortaleza. My crew must really have faith in me. For the novice it
will look like we are not sailing the shortest and fastest route. Aiming
a bit higher and getting a better angle on our sails and trusting that
the trade winds will turn us in.

Yesterday I was explaining how we now intend to catch a fish. In the
interem it dawned on me that we cannot turn the boat around in a flash
as we can on a powercat. We are running with two headsails and will
first have to drop the one and furl in the other before we can turn on
the motor and turn around. If the wind was coming from the side, on a
beam reach as we call it, it would be very easy. Man overboard drills we
practice this all the time. And by the time I have dropped the headsails
and turned the boat around the blue bucket will be floating in a big
blue ocean with the morning sun blinding us. So once again I had to up
the game a bit. How will we see the bucket was the problem. Took me a
few minutes to come up with a solution. Attach a danbouy to the bucket.
A danbouy is a weighted pole with a float towards the bottom. A long red
pole with a flag on top. It was developed for a man overboard situation,
and in SA it is law that we carry these. If I am not mistaken it was
developed in SA due to our sometimes big and rough seas. Sailing from
Cape Town to Durban is considered the most dangerous passage in the
world. Many reason why this is so. Back to the point, should the fish
take our lure now the bucket will drop and the danbouy will follow and
we will be able to see it from far away. The flag on top is red and
yellow, so easy to spot on the ocean. Can't give up, we have to keepon
trying and up our game to take on the big game fish without rod and
reel. Our first choice would be a dorado but we will be truelly thanful
for any fish. Not that we will starve if we don't catch a fish, it will
just improve our diet substantially. It is a rather complicated looking
set-up but as long as everything is free to fall into the water when the
fish strikes you are good. Last night we took the set-up down and Nick
who is doing the morning watch has just set it up. Tied on a new lure
and rigged the whole kebang, so here goes to nothing or......watch this
space.

You may wonder how some of the content from the last few postings link
together. Body, mind, spirit, soul and time. One word. Freedom. The
French have a saying, liberte toujours, freedom always. How this little
word relates to your body, your mind, your spirit, your soul and time I
will leave to your imagination, for now, ha ha ha. On the subject of
body, mind, spirit and soul I have received the following from one of
our readers.

The body of man- our flesh bone blood were made of the dust of the earth
.(Body Earth.)
That is the part with which we are most familiar with. The physical side
of
man.

The Spirit of Man.
Our God conciousness. God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, giving him
the spirit ( Wind Breath)
The spirit is the Capital city of the human personality.

The soul of man.
The soul is self conciousness, it stands for the individual, personal
life.
Hungry soul, a weary soul, a thirsty soul, a grieved soul, a loving
soul.
The soul joins two worlds, the physical and the spiritual.
The soul is to keep the body, as the lowest in subjection to the spirit
the
highest.

Man was created with the ability to think, love, and
make decisions.

On the origin of Love I am still waiting to hear from this reader but
thanks for the input.

Nautical expression today is 'Clean Slate'. It was the custom in the old
days to record the courses and distances on a log slate and, at the end
of the watch, transfer this information into the deck logbook. When this
was comnplete, the slate was wiped clean for the next watch to take
over. From this comes the notion of forgetting what has gone before and
starting anew.

Our current position is 05*31'S/025*46'W @ 07:00 UTC - 2. Yes, we have
changed our time on the boat again and we are now four hours behind SA
time. We like the sun to rise and set at abour 6. We are 760nm from
Fortaleza and can start expecting more shipping traffic.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Captain Paul

If I could safe time in a bottle ......

Shaiks ! Yesterday we were hit by a BIG FISH , hooked solidly by our new
configuration. See I spelt this word wrong in yesterdays posting. No
editing, just hit and send. So excuse if a little mistake slips through
here and there. Back to the fish, it snapped our 1500kg breaking strain
line with a bang. There were some choice words that left my mouth, unfit
to publish. Not only because it snapped and got away but also because
the lure was the one that Maryna my daughter handpicked from 100's of
others and it was the one we had all our strikes on. And ofcourse
feeling sorry for the fish that will have to swim with a hook in his
mouth for a few days before it will rust off. And because on our
previous trip on a fast Powercat I devised a method that when the fish
strikes a 30ltr empty water bucket is tied to the line and dragged off
the boat by the fish. A quick tack and chasing the bucket which is
hopping over the water, we had great success like this last time. I
thought going considerably slower we would not need the bucket. I have
never needed it before on a sailing vessel. So yes, back to school it
felt like to me. I have learned something new to up my game and did not
aplly it. Pretty p'd off is the closest I'll get to using strong
language on record. So yes, we have the bucket method back in place and
ready to turn the boat around in a flash to chase after our bucket and
the fish that is dragging it around.

Through the years I have read some very interesting book on Time, and
our perception of it. When I finished matric me and a few friends took
our watches off and placed it under one of the wheels of my fleetline
combi I had those years. Backwards and forwards and backwards again we
voiced our opinion on being slaves to time. Since then I have never worn
a watch again, being a rebel at heart.James Dean was perhaps a rebel
without a cause, I was a rebel without a clue. There are many other
sources where we can get the time from, and nowadays my cellphone also
tells me what the time is. I have never been late for any appointment
and it was one of the reasons I got the job when I was contracting doing
renovations and building.

We have been conditioned to think time is linear, or runs in a
horizontal line. You are born, you go to school, you work most of your
life, you go on pension and you die. Nice, easy, no questions asked, you
have served your duty to humanity, but mostly to industry. I wonder who
decided that one's date of birth must be recorded and that exactly one
year later you celebrate your first birthday. The Romans devised the 12
month calendar and they were certainly slave masters as their empire
expanded. Born in a leap year on the 29th of February as in 2012, you
will only celebrate your birthday every four years, perhaps a secret to
staying younger much longer, 4 to 1. So we sliced up periods of time
into ever smaller sections so we could get some control over it, or try
to at least. I wonder how the bushmen kept record of time or were they
perhaps just aware of the seasons that come and go. Their works of art
remain timeless and the sacredness with which they viewed everything
around them, including themselves, were faultless. So much we can learn
from these small hunters and artists.

Back to time and our perception of it. Is there perhaps another way to
look at time, in a more vertical manner. Get a peep at all the possible
dimensions. Einstein escaped this timetrap most of us are caught in and
developed the theory of relativity. Would time exist if there was no-one
to keep track of time, in the way we understand time? Is time the way we
understand it an illusion? And why would it be important for us to try
and break free from this illusion. Simple really, part of us is
immortal, but the way we view time we forget about that. We talk about
and have all types of memories about back in the day. The future we fret
about, but the most important, the very moment, is all we really have.
But who of us can savour the moment. If you had no baggage from the past
and no future to worry about, and only the moment to experience,
wouldn't that be something. Perhaps we can look at it in another way. If
you suffer from some incurable disease and the doctors give you six
months to live, how would that affect you. What would then become
important, vital. Would every sunrise and sunset just be another day
gone by, or would it take on a whole new meaning. Special, sacred,
unforgettable. What would you spend your time on, watching TV? I know I
wouldn't, I would savour every single moment as if it was my last. And
in reality today is all we have. Tomorrow you may be dead and gone.

Our current position @ 11:00 UTC - 1 is 06*18'S/023*49'W. Fortaleza,
Brazil is 888.8nm away and Tahiti about 8400nm's. Hope you have a day
with at at least one unforgettable moment.

Captain Paul

Where did Love originate from ?

Here by us all is well. For the last few days we've been having some
good winds and making up for some lost time. We also had another strike
this morning and came to the coclusion that it must be billfish,
probably sailfish which is trying to stun our lures. In a natural
enviroment billfish would stun their prey and as the prey then stop
swimming for a moment position themselves and go for the kill,
swallowing the in this case flying fish. There are copious amounts of
flying fish all around, taking off in huge squadrons, touching the water
and taking off again in random directions. Their glistening bodies and
awesome manouvres are always awesome to watch.It also gives us the
reassurance that there is life out here, besides ourselves. One of the
lures I have no rigged specifically for billfish, a type of outrigger
configuration. I have had success a few times before with this method
and we normally release the saily.

An interesting question came up, hence the subject of this posting. We
often end our correspondence with Love and Light. By that we imply and
wish Love and Light of the highest order to abide with you on your
journey. If we summize that the method that was used to create the
universe was a most amazing orchestrated event called the 'Big Bang' and
that Light originated from there, where would Love then originate from.
The English language is sometimes not so descriptive as we would
want,and other languages follow closely behind. There are all types of
love, and we use it to describe a feeling, a thought, an expression.
Using the same word to describe a nearly endless variety of what of what
we are trying to express, all with different meanings. Yes, there are a
lot of truisms and cliches about love, but what is it really and where
does it originate from? I don't know. I have a few ideas but I am
looking for something new, a new insight into this very thing called
love. I know you can come up with sentences that contain the word love .
We all pertain to be experts at it. We all want it, we are all looking
for it, and we all give it.

Our first experience of love is and was motherly love. Right through the
animal kingdom we can see it. Can plants also give and receive love. Are
the fruit and vegetables we eat perhaps accepting the love of plants. On
all accounts love is definately a type of energy that vibrates
throughout the universe. Is compassion love? I certainly think so, and I
also think it is the highest form of love. And what you give is what you
get. Sometimes these are ideas that we don't understand completely. On a
more practical level showing how energy resonates in unison there are
many examples I can give. If I pluck one string on my guitar I can feel
the other strings vibrating as well, including the wood that forms and
amplifies the sound of the string. Your voice is also an instrument that
resonates. Some opera singers can reach such a high note with their
voices that they can can crack a crystal glass. In the same way, this
wave energy that starts at a source travels on and on, perhaps into
infinity.I have much to contemplate on this matter as I would like to
solidy this ethereal matter into some new understanding. If you have any
ideas on this matter please share it.

"Fathom" is the nautical term today. From the Anglo Saxom 'faedm' to
embrace, which loosely describes the manner by which this measure
arrived. A fathom is six feet which is the span of an average man's
arms. Ropes to be measured were held in each hand and stretched across
the chest. Unhappily the word is dying at sea as measures and depths are
now expressed in metres. However, the word still survives ashore where
its figurative meaning is to get to the bottom of things to penetrate or
understand.

Our position now @ 11:30 UTC + 1 is 07*02'S/021*39'W. We are 1020nm from
Fortaleza. Tomorrow we will look a bit at Time, our sometimes relentless
master.

Love and Light

Paul