November 28, 2015 – We can see that the sun is setting and rising later compared to our clocks. Which makes sense because we are moving towards the Caribbean where it is 4 to 5 hours earlier. So we changed our clocks 1 hour backwards and this morning the sun was rising at a normal hour again. So nice to follow the sun and the moon and decide for ourselves when to adjust our clock settings. For all people at home: for us it’s now 2 hours earlier than in the Netherlands.
Yesterday night Herman and Nicoline started the 1st night shift. We saw some dark clouds coming up and in full sailing wear (except for the boots) we were ready for it. Luckily no rain came but some good wind did and Shiva made 9 to 10 sometimes even 11 knots of speed. Nice to make some fast miles again! One hour later however the wind lowered to the level of the day which made us go 5 knots of speed and sometimes even less. The next night shifts Shiva speed was steady with 6 knots. The weather can change so quickly here, in one day you can have all sorts of wind and weather. It makes a stunning sky with many different views, because clouds are changing shapes quickly and the sun or moon are painting the world in different colours.
Because of the clouds and no moon it was very dark, you could barely differentiate the sea from the sky. Impressive! Even more impressive was the sky full of stars that we could now clearly see. Stars all around us and the milky way right above us. Beautiful. As soon as the moon came up and found a way through the clouds Shiva was sailing in the spotlight again and still some stars were blinking to her.
So what is it that we do during our night shifts? Firstly the shift schedule starts at 5PM and ends at 9.30AM. We do shifts of 3 hours up and 6 hours down (asleep) and we are always with 2 during a shift. Herman, Inge and Gerard (generation X) turn passes and so do Daan, Mariette and Nicoline (generation Y). A nice thing is that after 1,5 hour of your shift the other Generation has a shift change, so you always sit the first half with someone and the second half with another one. Mariette usually prepares a Snack Bag and we make tea and coffee upfront. Then, during a shift it is important to watch the sails and the wind. The course is usually already determined, so we need to adjust the sails to the wind if needed. Also it is key to keep an eye on the surrounding if there are other ships or heavy clouds and possible rains coming our way. This can be done with the navigation system or radar or by eye of course. Other than that it’s mostly sitting and keeping each other awake We are only busy if the wind is too heavy for the automatic pilot or if we need to change sails a lot. But so far the majority of time during our night shifts is spent sitting & chatting & now and then checking the surrounding. Key thing is that people are on deck and readily available for action if needed.
Temperatures during night are between 18 and 20 degrees, very okay but still necessary to wear a fleece or something warm and long trousers because you’re sitting still during the night with wind. During the day it’s about 25 to 30 degrees.
Today it’s day 6 already and our day distance is 148 miles. In total we have now made 1051 miles, approximately 1700 miles more to go!