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Sweet Dream - Monday November 11, 2019



We ran under the poled out Genoa and a bit of main all night. In the early 04:00 watch I played dodge the ships. AIS makes this a breeze, and after having transited the German Bight, the North Sea, The straights of Messina and Gibraltar, and not least of all both sides of Panama and the English Channel, this part of the ocean is comparatively light on shipping traffic. Captain came up at 07:00 and we had our by now boring for you to read about, but never tiring to us, yogurt, granola, and coffee. He ran the SSB net for the day, while I steered the boat. We always turn off the autopilot and electronics to save power and cut interference during SSB use. After the net, Lars napped and I sewed a couple hiking patches on his backpack. He tries to collect one from each country we visit. It is a bit tedious sewing because nowadays every patch comes with a thick iron-on glue backing that is quite difficult to sew through. I use a sail needle and fine whipping twine and a teeny pair of needle nosed pliers. But once on, they are quite durable, and a real fun conversation starter, not to mention a small, easy to carry, souvenir from each country. Our “busy” morning made us hungry, so for lunch I took 2 big fajita sized tortillas, spread a bit of Dijon mustard on one side, layered thin tomato slices, Gouda cheese, and sliced smoked turkey on each, folded them in half and fried them til crispy in hot butter. We dipped these makeshift quesadillas in a combination of plain yogurt (as a substitute for sour cream), and mild salsa. The wind was light all afternoon, so we motorsailed, puttered around the boat, took turns napping, and read. Lars finished his Louis La Amour book, and is now reading a who done it called ‘Last Dance’. I’m working through Ursula K. Leguin’s ‘Steering the Craft’. During our afternoon snack of Brie slices and almonds, we had a discussion with a passing Cargo Ship to ask them if they could see us on AIS. The answer was sadly, “no”. We thanked them and now know, at least that when the AIS silent mode says “on”, it is Not transmitting, only receiving. I have been concerned about this since Vanuatu, when Tumi said they couldn’t see our AIS signal all the time. The crazy thing just puts itself on silent mode, and when we try to manually put it back to transmitting, it just bounces back to silent. We receive all the time, but for some unfathomable reason, transmit intermittently. The most frustrating aspect of this malfunction, is that unless one goes through three layers of searching on the chartplotter, there is nothing to indicate whether we are transmitting or not; one more thing for the Africa repair list. And, we need to be extra attentive to shipping, now that we know we don’t transmit reliably on AIS. We always yield to the big ships anyway, never expect them to alter course for us, as it’s far easier to manoeuvre our fifty-four foot sail boat than for a ship on a set schedule that measures their length hundreds or thousands of feet to change course to avoid us. The law of manoeuvrability takes precedence over the law of motor yielding to sail when it comes to big ship vs. sailboat. Besides, it’s just plain rude to expect a working boat to yield to a pleasure boat, and if one keeps a proper watch, there is always plenty of time to ease out of the big guy’s way. They are, for the most part, very predictable, and always polite to pick up a hail on vhf, if there is any doubt. We find that even flying wing on wing, as we do a lot in tradewinds sailing, there is plenty of time to avoid being within a mile of any big ship. The one mile cpa is a good comfort zone, and using the AIS information makes a fun adult video game out of ship dodging. On dark nights I use radar as well, making a split screen on our chartplotter. It’s very reassuring to see the two tools in agreement, and when near the coast, radar is invaluable for picking up fishing boats and pleasure boats that don’t have AIS, not to mention it’s a great aid in spotting squalls and their strength and track anytime they have rain in them. Speaking of squalls, we have been blessed with very few so far this trip, but on the radio net this evening we heard there are plenty ahead. After the net, we ate a quick supper of leftover Sunday roast bits and the veggies cut up and fried in olive oil, as a sort of hash. Then we moved the Genoa pole to the port side, prevented out our reefed-beyond-the-tear main on the starbrd side, turned off the motor, and went back to blissful sailing. At 22:00 when I came up, Nor’Easter was 13 miles to our port showing up on AIS. Lars had a nice chat with him, happy to share that Chao Lay reported great going today under the sail Nor’ Easter had so generously lent him yesterday. He said when he got within range, if he saw our AIS signature, he’d let us know. Now it is midnight and as I wrap up another day on the Indian Ocean on Sweet Dream, Nor’easter is four miles to port, but I doubt he will see us on AIS because I checked, and we are still on silent mode. Then, just for kicks, I switched on the radar, which I haven’t used this trip because dear moon has been so gracious to accompany us each night, and bother it all! The radar isn’t working! So...here’s a clue for Sherlock....the radar and AIS are on the same electrical circuit in the box....hmmm... I’m excited to share this with our ship’s engineer at next watch change!


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