I thought that it might be
interesting to reflect on how we are managing our time on Maalu IV. She is
looking after us so well and we are totally dependent on her so it is important
that we continuously monitor her and watch the weather for her. This protects
her and also optimises her performance, we do want to get to St Lucia as quickly
and as safely as possible after all.
We started with two people on three hour watches as
neither Iona nor Jono had undertaken an ocean passage before and Nicholas and I
were hardly experts. Our only experience was bringing Maalu IV from Ipswich to
Las Palmas with marginally less than 500 miles as our longest passage. We were
also more sleep deprived than we would have liked when we left Las Palmas as the
last minute jobs kept multiplying.
It wasn't long before Iona and Jonathan expressed views about the watch
system. They felt that it would be better to change to a four hour watch as the
sleep period would be longer. No mutiny was required and the parents acquiesced.
I do think that this is an advantage of a family crewed boat, we know each
others strengths and challenges so well and can be adaptable within reason.
We maintain the watches from 7 pm to 11 am. During the day we
are fairly relaxed with a liberal regime for eight hours which allows us to have
lunch and dinner together. There is always someone in the cockpit on watch and
usually others are catching up on sleep or chores. Each night we flipped around
the watches so that everyone got to see sunsets, moonrise and sunrise.
I have to be honest we were getting more tired and we didn't seem to be
getting into a decent rhythm so Iona became the self appointed watch master.
Jono was clear that he didn't want to undertake watches on his own so he and
Nicholas continued on the four hourly system. Iona and I split our watches so
that we took two hours each on our own and then had six hours of sleep. This was
so much better. Six hours of sleep was a revelation. So she now adapted this as
a rotation with someone paired with Jono and the other two doing solo watches.
The remaining issue was that Nicholas was looking more tired and clearly as
skipper the burden was taking its toll.
Still not happy she has now produced the most complex watch system have
ever seen. There are two fixed rules. It runs for 16 hours with a first on watch
and a back up. Jono is always paired with someone. After that it is almost
impossible to describe but it is working. I have never seen a watch system like
it.
We are making good progress westwards but in pretty bouncy seas with
moderately strong trade winds. We have become experts at handling squalls,
usually everyone disappears inside and leaves the person on watch to get soaked!
We expect to be bounced around for the next few days before we hope for things
to calm down. We are all pretty tired despite the custom built watch system.
Sleeping is difficult because the boat rocks and rolls unpredictably and the
noise is constant. We are going slightly more south to try and find calmer seas.
Morale is still excellent, helped by celebrating the small gains. Iona and Jono
gave their parents presents for a successful first week at sea. This was rapidly
followed by a chocolate cake to celebrate our first 1000 miles of this nearly
3000 mile voyage. And on we go.....