Day 9 - Sailing Maneuvers

Today I was woken up in the very middle of the night and my sleep by Rebecca screaming something about the autopilot not working anymore or something. I thought I dreamt it only, but still went out to look and it actually didn't work anymore and she was steering manually. It was maybe three in the morning and I was tired, but snapped awake by the stress of the situation. Not wanting to disturb Christian who seemed to still be asleep quite soundly somehow we started assessing and fixing the situation on our own. In the dark, I kind of took charge, Rebecca hold, course try to see that we don't cross the wind otherwise our sails might get damaged. We're at 330°, we need to stay roughly that way, I'll disconnect the autopilot and restart it and then see if it works again, and if it does we need to put it back onto the helm. Said and done, the first time we were a bit too slow. The autopilot is quite simple really, it's just a piston that goes in and out, pushing the helm left and right, that sits on a little bolt on top of the helm. If the system detects that we're going off course, it pushed the helm out or in a little bit by actuating the hydraulic piston. The problem is that as soon as you turn on the auto pilot it tries to match the position of the boat to the course but because it's not connected the piston just extends more and more outward. So you have to deviate from the course and re-attach the autopilot to the helm, by extending the helm outward. But if you're too slow, the motor stalls because it reaches the maximum extension of the piston and then the autopilot shuts itself off again. But we manage. On the second try we are quick enough and slip the autopilot back on the bolt and check that everything is working and it seems that indeed, it does. Happy of our work, we high five each other, and I go back to sleep. I just notice that I didn't even put on any clothes, doing this work in my underwear haha. The next day Christian didn't even notice that there was anything wrong and was very happy that we let him sleep for the entire night. He slept very well he said.

This day was quite simple. At first we re-built the sailing setup, then we tried to repair the wind based autopilot. The sailing setup needed changing because the wind had changed it's direction so much, that with the current setup we had to go off course. We want to go west, but the wind was coming from dead east, which is bad for a mainsail + Genoa setup because going goose winged away from the wind, one sail to the left, one to the right is a very advanced point of sail because it tends to be quite unstable. If the wind changes, one sail collapsed and the boat pulls in one or the other direction because the remaining sail applies a rotation trying to turn itself into the wind. Furthermore the beams are out at 90° from the mast, and that's not good because our beam is quite low and if it touches the water when we're rolling in a wave, it has a decent chance to snap. So goose winged is not an option. So the main sail has to go down and we have to sail double Genoa. My favorite sailing setup so far. We have 2 beams, one for each Genoa, and we just build a big butterfly shape with the two sails to the front. It's very forgiving about the direction of the wind, as long as the wind comes vaguely from behind we're good. Up to 120° from either direction is still fine. Giving us a total of 120° of direction to work with. And because the trade wind is generally coming from east we have the waves rolling underneath the boat from east to west, into the direction we are traveling which is very comfortable. Side on is worse, and with the main sail + Genoa approach you generally want a 90° angle of attack for the wind, and therefore the waves coming in from the side. Rebuilding the sails is always a bit tricky, because there are a lot of little steps and sequence involved. But I try to detail a bit from memory what needs to be done, also as an exercise to show to our Captain Christian, to see if I have understood things nicely.

There are three ropes attached to each of the beams that need to be in place. One for pulling the beam outward (called the "Genoa schote" in German), which is also attached to the Genoa and pulls both the beam and the Genoa out, one for pulling it downward (called the beam down holder or "Baumzurückholer") and one for pulling it upward (called "Baumfall'). The beam has two ends, one attached to the mast and another one that needs to be attached to the sail. The end at the mast has a set of ropes running on a pulley that let you pull the ends of the two beams up and down at the mast. The "baumfall" can also be tightened/released, to lower or raise the end of the beams attached to the sail. The beam lowerer needs to go on the clamp in the back, then through the two rolls, inside of the "Wanden", ropes of steel connected to the mast, that hold the mast in place, then through the rolls in the front and tied into the end of the beam that is attached to the sail from below using a palsteik (or bowline in English). The Genoa Schote, needs to go on the winch in the front, through the roll in the back, around at the outside of everything so it can fly over the railing if necessary, and then attach from the outside over the railing, at the "Genoa" Horn, a small metal ring opening in the Genoa sail. It also has to be clipped into the sail end of the Genoa beam. Then lastly the beam halyard has to be put into place from the top.

So this is the order of operations:

1. Prepare beams.
2. Unclip sail end of beam from the floor, bringing it up and around to the other side, reclinging it. Attach beam fall, blue line clipped into Wanden Port side, to beam again. The lower mast end of beams enough that it can be reached.
3. Unscrew other beam from floor, bring it to the front, rotate and clip end in the front. Attach mast end, and then pull beams at mast end back up.
4. Turn on motor.
5. Roll in Genoa. Enough to still be able to untie the knots holding the Genoa schoten on each side. Important, first untie the Schoten from the roll, then tie new ones to the sail, so that there is always a rope that can be pulled on and you don't lose the sail.
6. Bring down the main sail. Before pulling it down, steer directly into wind, also increase engine speed slightly, and tighten the main sheet completely, fixing the sail right behind the mast, letting it flap in the wind. When pulling down, fold left, right, left, right, to get a sort of S-Shaped sail "stack". Let slowly go of the main fall, controlling it so the sail doesn't come crashing down hard, while making sure that the reefing lines are pulled out nicely too, and the whole thing is folding in nicely.
7. Once main sail is tucked away, work on attaching the Genoa setup. Steer back into the wind, re-enable autopilot. Make sure all lines are set up correctly once more, that Genoa Schoten are clipped into beams, that beam retrievers are attached to beams, that beam falls are attached to the beams, then raise the beams sail ends by tightening the beam falls, and slowly let out the Genoa on both sides. Roll out/slowly let go of the "Holenline", the retriever line to let the drum spin out, while also pulling on the two Genoa Schoten, tightening them and pulling the Genoas out. Once Genoa is fully out, tighten the beam fall + beam retriever + beam sled combination so that beam is nice and in place - 90° fan straight out rom the mast.
8. For better stability, especially in stronger winds, the backstag needs to be attached from the middle Wanden to the back again, so that the mast has a counter pull to the sail pressure in the front. Unclip, bring back, clip back in, tighten, and coil the rope, then monkey dick the rope around the rail.
9. Congrats, you're done. Enjoy the butterfly sailing setup.

Once we went through all these steps we were done. There were a few hiccups here and there, with ropes not lying the right way, not being in the right place but in the end we solved it all and had the sails up and can now sail at a 270° course perfectly to the East without any problems. It's the perfect setup for the Atlantic crossing. Very quiet, very durable, very forgiving, fast, and also easy to handle, even single handedly, in case of emergency the sails can be retrieved quickly only by letting go of the Genoa Schoten and rolling in the retriever line. And it's best for the slightly changing wind that generally comes from the back though.

After this sailing maneuver, I went back to sleep for a little bit and then when I woke back up I made myself some breakfast. Scrambled eggs with a piece of hard bread. After 8 days this is the last bit of bread that is still left and the others look at me in confusion while I am chewing and gnawing at my piece of rock solid bread. But I somehow like it even if other people would call this barely edible anymore. That's what I have teeth for. After this we do a bit of dozing, and taking, and relaxing, mentally preparing for the second task of the day which is the fixing and eventual remounting of the wind sailing autopilot. As it is with groups like this, there are always a few little things that need to get done, before starting a bigger task like this. First some lunch. Christian prepares some kickass Mahi Mahi + Guacamole sandwich together with some cabbage salad. Rebecca is still sleeping while we eat and only when I am done washing up she wakes up, just in time to start working on the autopilot. But no, now she first has to have lunch too. Sometimes she behaves like a princess. She likes to call it "boss" but I think it's more the attitude befitting of a princess. A little spoiled, where people are nice to and take care of her because she's cute and a bit naive and young. Like a little innocent chicken somehow. Where you don't want to hurt her but make sure that she has it easier than the other people on the boat. Taking care of her. Sometimes it's a bit annoying because it feels like she doesn't pull her weight but it's ok. She doesn't like being called princess though. But the banter is fun. I wonder how often Christian has rolled his eyes at the two of us already. I think there is some sexual tension there or something else, not sure what, but sometimes the interactions are indeed a bit weird haha. But whatever, were all still having fun and very good laughs. After she's done eating Christian is off doing something else, I think he's cutting metal screws for the installation of the wind autopilot. I'm meanwhile listening to the soft sounds of John Coltranes track Favorite Things, entering a world of my own, while waiting, until somebody pokes me at my leg saying that we are ready to mount the autopilot again. The two of us then proceed to hang over the railing for the next two hours, trying to make the screws go in while not losing any because the thing has to be mounted overboard. And it's heavy and clunky and the whole setup is stupidly complex and dumb to adjust. It's just no fun. The sun is setting and eventually we call it a day, it's still not working, the thing that we thought fixed it, didn't really and the whole shenanigans are still hanging by three ropes and some metal plates and screw haphazardly assembled and not quite done yet. Luckily we didn't lose any other pieces but we are still not sure as to the wtf why and who has assembled this shit this way question. The setup is just done so stupidly that you might think that it's done in like the most suboptimal, over engineered way possible. It could be done so much simpler and having to contend with this imperfectness of the world is a strain on the nerves. After we quit, I go down and start cooking a quick tomato pasta sauce and some spaghetti for dinner and a short while later everybody is slurping up their delicious noodles with tomato sauce happy to be done with the day. I've got a bit of a headache, so I just go to bed quickly, knowing also that I have the second night shift, which is the worst one since it's in the middle of the night and interrupts your sleep kind of cutting it in two halves. But somehow I like these shifts. I can just write my diary in peace, listen to some good music and have a few hours of basically productive quiet time to my own. Just writing and reading diary for hours.

Also, by now, we should basically be half way there.

It's crazy to see how far I've come already on this journey all the way from Barcelona and also, to think back on how long it took and the ups and downs and the amazing people I've met so far. I'm still seriously thinking if I want to join Christian for the crossing of the Pacific the next year or not, the time on the boat has it's ups and downs. It's a bit monotone sometimes, but also, somehow, exciting and an interesting "mode" of traveling and I dig the introspective mood that I sometimes get from the night shifts. Though I have to say that I am not too sure whether the whole thing with the crossing of the Pacific might be a bit too much. Also I'm not sure if Christian would even want this, I would have to ask him eventually about it and I am also not sure how time frames would look like and where I would have to fly to in order to make it work. Maybe I can travel around South America some more before that. Who knows. Maybe there are other people with whom I could do such a Pacific crossing. Maybe that's something I can still do when the AI revolution has happened and there's nothing much else to do, but not now where I should work on more important things... Maybe. Who knows. For today this is enough diary, see you tomorrow.