Long Beach to Cost Rica

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 8)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

by Mike

Today I’ll give you a snapshot of life on the Minnow. Or sailing with Bob (see above).

In the living room we have a “nav station” where a lot of electronic and electrical stuff is. It has our VHF radio, HF radio, and satphone for communicating with people who not on the Minnow.

When we talk to other boats we sit there. When we connect our computers to the satphone to get weather or send/receive email, we sit there. Sometimes when we read we sit there.

There’s a nice table and a comfortable chair there, too. And our boat-wide stereo and DVD player. And TV.

It’s where we drive the boat from most of the time. It has a GPS/chartplotter with a big electronic map display. A control for the autopilot is there, along with instruments indicating wind speed and direction, depth, speed, water temperature, air temperature, barometric reading, and time (yes, a clock).

The autopilot steers the boat virtually 24 hours every day. There are two steering wheels outside, but they rarely get touched, except when we’re docking or anchoring. The autopilot steers the boat on a straight line, or I follows the wind in “wind vane” mode. Most of the time, when we are using sails we use “wind vane” mode, so when the wind shifts the boat turns and the sails don’t flap or tangle or jibe. The autopilot beeps when the boat has turned very much as a result of a wind direction change so we don’t go in circles, or to Japan. When this happens, it beeps until a button is pushed, acknowledging the change in direction, or until the wind changes back (can be a long time).

Typically, the person sitting at the nav station presses the button, stopping the annoying beeping. If no one is near the nav station, someone gets up and stops the beeping. When Bob is at the nav station, it works something like this:

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP,” the autopilot asks for a button push.

“Bob?” I say from across the room, laying down reading a book.

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP,” it’s louder right next to Bob.

“Hey, you want me to get that?” I try again. Bob is in his own world.

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP,” we’ve turned 20 degrees right and this thing won’t stop its racket until the button is mashed.

“I’ll get that.” I sit up slowly, delaying a bit longer, hoping Bob will snap out of his trance.

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…” 

I walk up behind Bob and silence the noise with a simple touch.

“Oh,” he says, now staring at the button in a stupor, “want me to get that?”

A snapshot of life on the Minnow. It’s not pretty.

Fine Arts:

For lots of years many of us have been in the habit of listening to books-on-tape while we drive. Before going hiking in Nepal last fall, I put several audio books on my MP3 player and got in the habit of listening to them anytime I was walking. I continued this habit while deer hunting, bike riding, lawn mowing, and lots of other things.

Now it’s become a habit while sailing. It’s nice to be able to keep busy AND stay wrapped up in a story. On the Minnow, it’s not uncommon for Bob and me both to be walking around with ear-buds in our ears, doing whatever we do. It cuts down on meaningless chatter, too. Not that we talked much before.

But, there’s always a price to pay. It has cut back on our boat-wide enjoyment of the fine arts.

Fishing Report:

Changed lures. No bites. We were going fast today, most of the day between 9 and 10 knots, which is too fast for good fishing. But I took action anyway. I put new line on one of the reels so we could let the lure out farther. Take action. That’s what fishermen do.

 

Fine Dining:

When there’s enough wind to push a sailboat 9-10 knots, there’s enough wind to make some pretty big waves. So I opted for ready-to-eat meals. Banana bread, leftover fish, oreos, chips and salsa, breadmaker bread (good for the gums), cheese, chips ahoy, and bologna. It was a good day for eating.