Unexpected Limitations Part Deux

7º 15.016s 134º 53.389w

Sat May 04 2019

Before we set out on this passage as a crew we went through a similar drill. What can go wrong? What things are “must have” to keep us alive, healthy, afloat, and moving towards our destination. Lucky for us we could afford to spend the money to correct any identified shortcomings, and we all had a good bit of sailing experience. Still, there are bound to be surprises lurking out there. . .

We coerced Jamie and Behan Gifford to spend time with us, to take a quick day sail with us, to shower us with knowledge gained from their own 10-year circumnavigation experience. Invaluable in so many ways, plus we got a bitchin’ fruit cake out of the relationship, as well what I expect will be lifelong friendships.

We’ve got an odd problem with a nuisance alarm any time an engine is generating electrical power. Fortunately I can make that go away by de-energizing the alternator regulators, and the solar is doing a great job of charging the batteries.

Somehow our Single Sideband (SSB) radio is messing with Chevy the autopilot. Any transmission in the higher frequency range, often necessary for effective propagation this far from a shore station, causes Chevy to lose his brain. Not good, especially in big washing machine seas and wind in the high teens or 20’s.

We’ve had some interesting problems with seasickness among the crew. One who pretty much expected to be sick hasn’t felt bad at all, another who didn’t expect any issues has suffered to some degree the entire voyage. That can drastically reduce alertness and effectiveness, but in this case I think that person has powered through in excellent fashion.

Because of the various SSB issues, including crap propagation perhaps due to subnormal sunspot activity, we’ve relied almost exclusively on the Iridium Go for all data and voice communications. I’m stunned at how cranky the device is; we have to pull the battery and allow it a hard cold shutdown every few days due to buggy firmware and geez, that thing wasn’t cheap. We’ve had problems with the associated software that runs on IOS, as well as the seemingly identical software that runs on Android platforms. Those guys need to hire some better code monkeys!

Our fancy new B&G Zeus3 chart plotter clanked a ways into the trip, deciding our mast top wind sensor had fallen off or something. We had to power down all electronics and bring the system back up a total of 3 times before we restored reliable functionality. As Chevy often steers JollyDogs to an apparent wind angle, that was kind of important to fix.

Sometimes its smarter not to try and fix something until the passage is over. An Alaska Airlines MD80 flight crew learned that the hard way some years back, troubleshooting in flight a jack screw that controlled horizontal stabilator trim (think I got the details right). They and their trusty passengers got to dive over 30,000 feet down only to impact the sea, leaving tiny pieces of everyone and everything. You know what they say, “the guys in the pointy end of the airplane get to the crash site first”. To paraphrase what Roger used to say, “I only want to fly far enough above the ground for one scream, not high enough for time to take a breath and scream some more”.

As long as I can keep the Iridium Go alive the SSB can wait. I’m damn sure not going to tear into engine electrics at sea if I don’t have to. No way am I going to unnecessarily risk an electrical fire.

Look around at your boat. Think about your crew. Do your best to identify the limitations of everything and everyone. Can you address them so that they go away or become less significant? Can you adjust operations so that you safely and knowingly observe those limitations? Can you develop a response plan to the most likely situations that might arise?

Good luck! When you go to sea, don’t be surprised if something you never thought of rears its ugly head. Equip yourselves with the tools and resources that will help you slay the beast, or at least keep it caged until you get somewhere help is available, and never be bashful about asking for help. Oh yeah, and as the English are so fond of saying, “keep calm and carry on”.