| Maldives To The Red Sea Here for better or for worse is a major extract from the ship's log for the voyage from the Maldives to Djioubiti. I am posting this from Djibouti - one of the hottest cities in the world. Simply turning on the computer in my cabin raises the temperature by a couple of degrees - to 36 centigrade. 82% humidity. I used to take saunas at this temperature... No time or energy to pretty it all up as I set sail in the morning... The pictures will follow...but your imagination may be better. Day 1 – Maldives to Djibouti
Bang. Squall hits. Boat heels hard over. “NANOU NANOU NANOU
this is “This is NANOU. receive Loud and Clear over” “The weather is very bad, please come back to the atoll!” “[...wow!]...uh..Thank you for the info, but the sail boat might be safer at sea. What is the information you have received about the coming weather?” ( I think these guys are treating me like a fishing Dhorie - and they forgot I do not have a working anchor system). Still better go out and shorten the sails etc... Day 2 Yesterday was tough. A leak in the starboard fuel tank was apparently
worsened by the rough seas. 11pm The forward genoa furler has malfunctioned (Actually a helpful crew member previously cut the control line too short so that there is insufficient line to furl the large sail completely). Must go forward to the very bow of the boat and try to rewrap it. This will be a wet bucking bronco ride... [Ahh! Now there is no wind. Two seconds ago we had 20 knots on the nose. To fix the furler meant to straddle the very bow of the boat as it At the worst of times today, a fat tuna hit the line and I had to crawl aft on Day 3 PSSSSSSSSSS. What is that noise? Perhaps just wind... No! Blown water DAY 4 But strange how one can live with anything. Here I am still cooking dinner – Came above deck for one of my rare checks and Woh! A ship ¾ of a mile Still about 900 miles to my first waypoint (Socotra island off Somalia). Then Day 5 Rash in submission thanks be to Allah. I can’t motor when there are 8-10 Today I am trying to cook fried chicken and fried potatoes. So far – disaster.
Still about 800 miles to Socotra Island, then 600 after that to Djibouti. So in about 5
The sunset today was gentle and mild – the coolest it has been for a while. It
DAY 6 I visited the ship's barber today for a radical hair shortening - a solution to the intense heat. I thought he (I) had done a great job considering that there was no mirror and the use of the kitchen chicken cutters... But then, upon close inspection in the mirror down below, I realized that the incompetant butcher left 4 massive holes up top where I am now completely bald... Solo sailing is easier than solo haircutting. DAY 8 Missed a couple of days in which I slept a lot, worked on some product invention ideas and came up with some gastronomical novelties which unfortunately I had to eat, and kept inching forward – in the wrong direction – across the Indian Ocean. I worked until 6 am last night trying to get the computer working again. However I just managed to nuke it completely so now I have to send for parts from the States... there are plenty of books on board so from high tech tinkering it is back to Thomas Hardy circa 1890... But at 5:50am the great event took place! I casually looked at the wind meter – and everything was different! The wind had clocked around sufficiently for us to SAIL TOWARDS DJIBOUTI! For the first time in 8 days, I could actually set the correct course. It was almost dawn and, though I wanted a quiet “night’s sleep”, I decided to set the big sail. Once the 180 percent genoa was set, we went from 1.4 knots to 4 just like that . What a great feeling to know that maybe my luck has changed. So upon waking up today, everything was pretty rosy. The Northerly breeze was still there, the sky was filled with puffy trade wind clouds and boat was still progressing due West at a decent speed (decent is anything above 3 knots which allows for 70 miles a day). I spent a couple of hours hunting down and painting deck rust spots and generally felt a lot more useful than when we were pounding to weather. Only scary thing: toothache! It seems pretty permanent. I hope it doesn’t
escalate. As it is the dull pain is always there. Dentists in Djibouti? 3
weeks with a toothache... DAY 9 Made pancakes for breakfast! I never even get that on land! Checked the fishing line only to find some weird sort of a sea snake had got snared - by the belly! Poor thing, some smaller fish had already eaten its eyes out. Last night I caught a 20 pound tuna. This is the life. I really am enjoying being alone at sea it an unbelievable place to get to know yourself again after losing touch in the bustle of the real world... I bet some people never really get a chance to be alone enough to carry a train of thought for more than a few minutes. Yet another entire day spent trying to fix my computers... I managed to get it all working yesterday and then the whole thing had a terrible crash and I had to reconfigure the disks, operating system – the lot! Fun to do whilst cavorting along from wave to wave and bashing around like dried peas in a rattle. The weather is calm with a 6 knot breeze which is pushing me steadily West. Happiness... I should see Socotra, the ominous island which everyone is afraid of, in about 4 days. Apparently they shoot at passing boats and there was an incident of piracy reported here just a few weeks ago. I hope to sneak by unseen in the darkness of the night.. DAY 10
Today I awoke to the Radar alarm (which is now reliable again) and after some tossing and turning (after all it was only about 11 o’clock in the morning!) I got up and went on deck. Sure enough a large white dot was up ahead, steaming straight at NANOU. Within minutes the container ship had passed – about 250 meters on our port side. They no doubt saw us and I could see from the radar calculations that we were not going to collide - but it is unsettling to realize that it IS possible to have collisions out here. I heard a story once that the very first two motor cars in America had an accident... Becalmed. What a strange thing. The sails hang as white rags – limp, muttering once in a while as a slight ripple or breath of air shakes them. The sea is not a sea at all but a large lake – so blue and so clear that one can sea the rays of sun penetrate the depths. I dropped a shiny piece of metal into the deepness watching it gyrate as it fell towards the unkown. The ocean here is almost 5Km deep. So, a small yacht is much like a spaceship. It can exist here, but it is unnatural and one always has the feeling that survival is due to the fact that nature is tolerating us..for the moment. But as a spaceship, NANOU floated motionless in the stillness and I let her drift – the thought of motoring seemed blasphemous: a way of departing from oneness with the ocean. However, as Captain of the spaceship, another thought crossed my mind: SPACEWALK! The thought of swimming in this blue abyss with no one else around for hundreds of miles, perhaps with a tether – like the real spacemen – but perhaps completely free, was irresistible. I had to ignore my instincts and go for a swim away from the boat here in the middle of nowhere where NANOU lay floundering. I let a long line with a buoy attached drift behind the boat. The fact that the line payed out showed me that NANOU was in fact moving slightly – I would have to be careful. Entering the water suspiciously, timorously, I nonetheless felt the wondrous crystal water envelope me and let the great feeling take the upper hand over my fears. For a few moments. Then I was back to scanning the deep below me, watching for Jaws to appear out of nowhere. And eyeing the clouds and water around me trying to detect a coming gust of wind before it would blow NANOU away from me. It all felt so exciting that I couldn’t resist getting the underwater video camera and shooting NANOU – at sea - full sails and all - from 50 meters away.Of course this entailed swimming just a little bit further from NANOU so that she would all fit in the frame... Never have 50 meters seemed so far! [NB: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME - see description of shark attack in Eqypt just 2 months later] On the way back to the boat. A shock! Something in the water besides me! A school of Coryphene fish– predators foraging. [note: in english this type of FISH is called dolphin fish but it is not a dolphin which is a mammal so contrary to recent accusations, I don't go around assauting innocent dolphins...] I was a complete alien to these fish, so they ignored me and swam on. I however, had other plans. I swam back to the boat and grabbed the spear I had ready. After a brief pursuit...fresh fish was assured onced again. After that I got out of the water immediately. Who wants to test the theory that sharks can smell blood from miles away!? Now here I sit. Night after a great dinner. The boat drifts on; I am stubborn. I
will await a sailing breeze. It is wonderful out here – I’m in no hurry
and Djibouti doesn't know I'm coming... Maybe I can find the motivation to write
that product design document... Day 11 Time flies...but this boat is pretty much stationary! I spent the day finding all sorts of adventures on deck – mainly with sighting jumping tuna. The water was so calm that from my perch on deck I dominated a considerable area. The tuna were aggressive. They were jumping perhaps a foot and a half out of the water as they presumably chased some unfortunate fishy. When I saw my first one – up near the bow – I immediately grabbed my fishing line and plastic octopus lure and tried to attract the predator’s attention. Nothing doing, after a glance the fish move away – in the clear water even a dumb tuna can detect a piece of plastic. I’ll get him when the water is rougher, visibility is less, and the boat is moving at an acceptable speed for trolling... Later an entire school of tuna came within a meter of the boat – perhaps shading themselves...I rushed for my spear gun but was unable to load it in time...oh well – I still have a couple tunas in the freezer... Then in the distance, I saw a lot of tuna activity (mainly a splash followed by the
sight of a tuna careening back into the water) – and there was something floating in
the water – a coconut? Turned out to be buoy, and, I’m not sure how, I was
able to maneuver the becalmed vessel and - afer an hour - fish it out with my
man-overboard pole. I was hoping for a net attached and fresh fish... Instead I got
a spare anchor buoy. Interesting to note however, that the buoy was covered in fish
eggs. These I threw back into the water. I had been wondering Now there’s some moron on the radio – God knows from where he’s
transmitting: “India no mama no Mark, an old school friend, is trying to put me in touch with Ed Zandri who is
currently on Socotra doing some UN work. Apparently Ed is a diver and knows the
place. My information, however, is to AVOID the island as it has a history of
pirating small vessels...we shall see. I would love to do some diving, and Socotra is
definitely a challenge... DAY 12 A glum day. I slept late, not able to throw the heat induced sleepiness off. Meanwhile the little ship sped along(did I mention the wind arrived?!) – on a course that delivers one mile towards the destination for every 5 sailed... NANOU, is proving itself to be one hell of a dog when going to weather. As soon as the wind is forward of say 50 degrees off the wind, she slows down to only 2-4 knots boat speed. Very different than with all other headings where she scampers along at 8 to 9 knots in only 15 knots of wind... All this means that with the wind coming from where I need to go, I am having a frustrating time making progress. My trusted dividers have just indicated that if I keep up this tacking business, getting to the Socotra waypoint – only 200 miles away - will require NANOU to sail 750 miles! Right now I am doing 1.7 knots of which 0.8 knots is the vector in my desired direction... Djibouti could still be a month away... And there is wind. About 10-15 knots all day. The sea is bouncy and for some reason just puts me back to sleep today. I work at the web site for a few hours, a few other small projects and then loaf around reading and eating... A very uninspired day. And – no tuna! I defrosted what looked like a promising packet out of the freezer, expecting it to be sailfish steaks. Not at all – it was frozen rotten bananas! Some crew member’s experiment gone wrong. Jason got the last laugh... DAY 13 It’s 2am, the wind is howling and getting even stronger, there’s a huge tuna waiting to be gutted on deck. The boat is crashing into steep waves, Socotra lies invisible in the darkness just a few miles off to the port side. It’s a moon lit night, but I can’t help but feel the usual tension of approaching an unknown destination. The chart had all kinds of warnings about the east point of Socotra – saying to pass at least 40 miles east of it in a South West wind (like tonight!) the current and wind combine together to cause a nasty effect which has claimed many ships in the past. I had to compromise since I’m on a sail boat and I’m going to Socotra! I can’t stay 40 miles off and then beat back against the wind. So I decide on 20 miles off the point. We are safely past there now and I am striving to sail closer to the wind so as to make landfall possible tomorrow. This tuna is the last one for a while. I’m hanging up my fish hooks. I caught four today! Considering the size of this last one, there’s enough food for one person for ten huge meals! I will start fishing again when I have made a significant dent in the frozen stores. I hope to throw a fish bbq in Socotra if I find some guests... Last night I hooked up a tiny TV camera outside next to the radar. Now I have the radar live image on my TV and computer in my cabin. That means extra safety as I can at any time glance at the radar screen! Anyhow it is a nervous night as it is hard to relax when getting closer and closer to
an island in very windy weather (and in “pirate waters” to boot). I will
set a course, decide on a maximum amount of time that I The kitchen timer was not necessary. I didn’t get a wink of sleep. NANOU was tossed around in the bewildering juxtaposition of two currents meeting at the eastern point of Socotra. The notorious dangerous area was showing me how it earned its stripes. The GPS plotter showed that as I tried to sleep, we had been sucked in towards the dangerous point. Still plenty of sea room but scary to know that the forces of evil are at work! With wind increasing further I must furl the big genoa and open the smallest jib. This is a wild operation. To carry it out, I have to release the genoa sheet. Tremendous flapping noises, rushing water, howling wind, straining winch, broadside waves and pitch darkness. The adrenaline runs high. Finally, the job is done, the boat is not so over-powered and feels better.
I spend half an hour cleaning up the lines and assorted devastation that the wild
weather has dealt the deck and galley. Every few seconds a steep wave hits up
throwing me against the bar top or causing me to hang onto some handhold with white
knuckles... DAY 14 Arrived at Socotra, tucked in behind the cape to find the most spectacular sight: An enormous sand dune mountain falls steeply into the blue sea like vanilla ice cream into hot chocolate sauce.
No pirates. Just very friendly Yemenite military patrol and the prospect of meeting all the folks from the UN mission. Hopefully I can unload some fish with a BBQ in their honour.
It was a good sail. Socotra will be a good rest - then the other 600 miles solo to
Djibouti. |
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