Night Watches and Tropical Heat

Tuesday 12th January 2010
Position: 07degs 37'700S 105degs 01'277E          Boat time: 05:35hrs

Having left the steady predictable waters of Western Australia behind, we are now in what is known as the 'Monsoon Trench'. Its a deep sea trench just outside the Sunda Straits where squalls and heavy down pours are a regular occurence. This makes the sail plans very difficult to manage as the weather information we recieve is often made unreliable by localised weather systems. On watch yesterday, due to squalls and wind shifts, we ended up hoisting and dropping 3 kites in 6 hours! this alone would not be a problem but after every drop the kite has to be packed. This takes the whole watch working in pairs to role it up, tie it with wool and then store it in its bag. Simple enough but with the heat below decks it's almost unbearable!

At night we are now keeping regular radar watches to try and see if any squalls are imminent (as rain shows up on the radar) and if there is any shipping to worry about. So far, we have only seen a couple of ships on the horizon which have crossed our bows at high speed. However, we have seen loads of squid fishing vessels which normally present themselves as a glow on the horizon. One did come quite close. They're easy to spot at night as they shine bright lights on the water to attract the squid and are, therefore, all lit up like a Christmas tree! At the moment there are about 5 'glows' around us at various points just over the horizom so a keen look out is being kept. As we approach the Sunda Straits, we're expecting to sea a lot more traffic as they are the 2nd busiest shipping lanes in the world - after our English Channel, that is!

Night watches are very eventful at the moment not only with evolutions (sail changes) and shipping, but also lightning is a regular occurance. At first, we thought it was the spinnaker illuminated by the steaming light playing tricks on the water. But then the biggest flash ever came from directly behind us! Luckily, none of the lightning so far has been close to us and it only seems to occur at night when we can see where it is. Other than the lightning, the nights at the moment are almost pitch black and it is impossible to see anything! On watch last night, at about half 2, there was a sudden thud just behind where April and I were sitting. I could see a large dark shape on the deck. I assumed it was another flying fish and put my hand on it to throw it back overboard. But I quickly removed my hand and squealed maybe a bit too loudly as it was not what I expected! Instead of feeling wet but fairly solid and scaly, it was slimy, squishy, very slippery and definitely not a flying fish! A torch was shone on the spot and there was a big sea bird lying stunned on the deck, one wing folded in. After a quick discussion it was decided that it would probably float the right way up and, anyway, it was only slowing us down! So April bravely did the honours, picked the poor thing up and threw it overboard into the darkness. we can only hope we right about it floating!

Although busy and with lots of things to do, the last couple of days have been particularly hard for me. The heat on deck has been just about bearable but any kind of activity drains you and everybody's tempers are wearing thin. Sleep is also difficult with the fans going in the bunks and the other watch doing noisy sail changes. Trying to escape the stifling heat below decks is almost impossible. Mother watch the other day was particularly difficult due to the heat and the interferaece of spinnaker packers. After waking up to go on watch at 8 last night (after being woken 3 times by conversations - not even a real excuse like sail changes!), I was completely shattered and feeling very tired and testy. Luckily, Michelle was on Mother and fed me rehydration sachets and fruit mintoes! A real life saver!

Hopefully it should be a bit quieter on deck now with a more constant breeze and I'll be able to catch up on some much needed sleep! That said, the racing is still exciting and we're up at the front of the fleet! Come on Jamaica!

Look out for the next exciting installment! Lily x