agility @ sea

Night 2:I’m on midnight watch 36 hours into our 3 day passage. It’s slightly overcast so the stars aren’t nearly as brilliant as they were last night and I can see the glow of Sardinia 30 miles to our northeast.

Agility features a forward cockpit where I am sitting very comfortably tonight. Often it’s too breezy or wet up here and I hang out either on the aft deck, where it is more protected, or inside. We have excellent visibility from the interior of the boat and an interior helm. All of our equipment is duplicated (forward cockpit and interior helm) so It’s possibile to see what’s going on from either vantage point. I set my watch alarm for 15 minutes as a precaution in case I doze off (I dozed off once 16 years ago – ha), but more as a reminder and a means to relax a little more when it’s not necessary to be hyper vigilant.

When the timer goes off, I stand up, look around, walk out back, look around, check the radar, our course, and start it again. One thing about the forward cockpit is that it has a couple of drainage holes, but when we slap into the waves salt water squirts up through the holes so each time I make the forward aft traverse I have the pleasure of stepping through a cold salt water puddle. This makes my feet feel permanently cool and slimy. 

Day 3:

It’s now 9:40 a.m. and I had a great 5.5 hour sleep. Tim was finally able to put the sails up last night after I went to bed and we are moving along okay right now. Down under 7 knots, but I’ll keep them up until we get below 5.

Sardinia is a ways behind us and the chart plotter clock says we have 24 hours to go based on our current speed. Wahoo!

Night 3:

Midnight again, stars are bright, and I can see a few boats out there. Two of them are showing up on the radar and one has AIS on allowing me to click on the boat, see the name, heading, distance and point and time of nearest contact. I can also target a boat on the radar without AIS and find out much of that info. I do a lot of poking on the chart screen during night watch. To add to the fun, I also check out the traffic with both the night vision and regular binoculars. I still can’t believe we didn’t see a single boat all of the way from Chile to French Polynesia. I’m not crazy about the boat traffic, but it does make it easier to stay awake on night watch.