The last several days have involved
attending ARC’s briefings on provisioning, flares, liferafts and the inspection
of Nordik Light for preparedness for offshore passage making. The hole in the foredeck has been sealed up
in a very neat repair for the wires powering the staysail’s furling motor. There was some sorting out with regard to
polarity of the wiring and when that was all good, crew had a chance to
practice inspecting the deck gear while underway and made sure the staysail
sheets got their usual several wraps around the roller-furled sail. We did fine on the inspection and came away
with some helpful tips, like taping the pelican hooks on the side gates to ensure
none come open unexpectedly. And
Inspector Peter’s approvals of most of the gear and conditions on and below
deck was a boost to crew confidence.
On Tuesday, Peter, the same man who
inspected the boat, gave a briefing on emergency management at sea. This covered defining what constitutes and
emergency (not a hangnail), prioritizing life and property problems,
preparations to help avoid trouble via a number of considerations, including
getting an offshore capable boat, planning, capable crew, and many other
aspects of working to maximize safety and minimize loss. Peter presented a video of a crewman going
very quickly overboard in a Southern Ocean race and discussed elements of this
emergency, what went wrong and how to avoid a similar incident (don’t allow a
gap in being clipped on). It was
impressive how quickly the man in the cockpit wound up in the water. A second or so.
Mia gave a well-organized presentation on
provisioning for offshore passages. For
those of us new to longer offshore passage-making, she offered lot of helpful
suggestions, including crew food allergies and preferences, who’s doing the
cooking, menu planning and making sure ingredients match meals, refrigeration
capabilities, and having 1.5 times as much food on board as the estimated
length of the passage; just in
case. Mia covered specific meal
arrangements used on her vessel, snacks, heavy weather plans versus calmer seas
meals. Even not leaving a knife lying
loose on the galley counter, put it in the sink was mentioned, a good tip for
avoiding an injury. What to do if the
boat loses much of it’s water supply or electrical power, trash disposal and
provisioning in ports along the various ARC’s voyages (Bermuda) were also
discussed. Even with this crewperson’s
21 years of cruising there were helpful ideas in Mia’s presentation, so thank
you, Mia, and the ARC folks for another helpful presentation.
The next day, all crew from Nordik Light
attended the flares demonstration out on Nanny Cay’s breakwater, with many
rally participants getting a hands-on experience firing off and holding a
flare. This was followed by briefing in
the pool with life rafts. Again a good
discussion was followed by us boaters donning life jackets and practicing a dry
boarding of the raft from the pool deck, then a wet boarding from the
water. Also crew practiced righting an
inverted life raft, as the raft will sometimes emerge from it’s container and
inflate in an upside down position. So
several sailors got to grab lines or parts of the ballast bags on the underside
(now top side) of the raft and pull themselves up onto the raft while pulling
it over on top of themselves. Good
takeaway point was to hold one arm and fist vertically over your head to create
an air pocket around you after the raft has flipped over and is above you in
the water. This leaves you with air and
some time to get out from under the raft with much less likelihood of panic. Later that afternoon, rally participants had another briefing, this time over at Andy and Mia's Swan, and this time about deck safety, mostly focussing on preventers for the main/boom and rigging and handling a spinnaker pole for the genoa, providing for a steadier and more effective headsail going downwind. These aspects of sailing are particularly relevant for Nordik Light, as we will be running down the Trade winds on the way to Fort Lauderdale. Not a first time for us on this topic, but all reminders, refreshers and going over ideas are always welcome.
Most days this week, after the serious
business of preparing to make a safe passage, our crew had a swim, a few beers,
some dinner (light, as all of us on Nordik Light are trying to get back into
our speedos)…… We are working on
improving our morale in a 2 part process:
1) serious preparation and 2) awesome conversations in the evenings
about sailing, flying, mechanics, where are we and where are we going?
(navigation), love, family, children, Freud’s ideas, the environmental
movement, soccer moms, the meaning of life and the probable fate of the
universe and what’s to eat. And all the
jokes we can recall, which, given our
young old ages is between 3 and I don’t remember. Signing off,
Log Keeper of Nordik Light, Lynn
P5031245 2 P5031255 P5031256