Sailing and the environment

[John Nantz]

77 Days and 2222 Nautical Miles (no kidding)

I'm not making this up - and this is dock-to-dock.My wife kept the log and never really told me about it - only the daily runs. She likes running the GPS and apparently set it up to record the entire trip with a cumulative total. When we returned and were unloading all the stuff she went to make the final entry in her log and gave me the news. Should have got a picture of the GPS readings.Departed June 30 which I learned later is "way late". Leaving earlier one picks up more southerlies (as a percentage) and returning earlier one gets more northerlies. However, we got more of the opposite. In mid August, from Prince Rupert on, we started getting a lot of strong southerlies.The schedule that was dictated to me required the boats return before the end of August. Float planes and other means of transportation to return the "crew" (a.k.a. Admiral) were not an option.Even so, we still managed to sail about 1/3 of the time. Another interesting statistic: Boat speed, fully loaded (into the boot stripe area): 6 knots under power. Average speed for the entire trip: 7 knots! This was due to a combination of some good sailing (all day spinnaker run at 6 to 10 knots) down Chatham Strait after photographing the whales and some really good sailing on a few other legs plus "going with the flow" (tides/curents). With 20-ft ties you can get some really favorable curents if you time it or catch back-eddys.Really great trip!Gota run and get ready for the Langly Hunter rendezvous this weekend.

 

[Bruce Trotter]

77 days ?

WHat kind of boat and size? I assume its a Hunter !

 

[John Nantz]

Bruce - Hunter "Legend" 35

Bruce - We took a Hunter "Legend" 35, 1988 model. It was a little "cozy" with the two of us and a cat (litter box, etc.), paper charts (from Puget Sound to the Gulf of Alaska), and tons of other stuff. The boat was really loaded down.It was great! Here is a picture from the end of Tracy Arm - August 1st (summer?).

 

[Gary Wyngarden]

John, you're driving me crazy

with those pictures. I can't wait to go on that trip, and I can't take three months off...yet.Gary WyngardenS/V Shibumi H335

 

[Rob]

GREAT SHOTS JOHN!!

POST MORE!!!!none like that here in the chesapeake bay!

 

[Clyde]

Whales and sailboats

News article in the Seattle Times titled "Ships hitting whales imperil rare species" (April 21, 2002)."Between 20 percent and 35 percent of whales found dead show signs of having been struck by ships, more in some species, recent studies found. Right whales in the western North Atlantic appear to have been especially hard hit. Their population is estimated at 300 to 325. Nearly half of the known mortality of the species is due to ship collisions or net entanglement. Ship collisions probably account for 40 percent, said David Laist of the federal Marine Mammal Commission. It's a very significant share...It's clearly preventing their recovery. Scott Kraus, research director at the New England Aquarium, estimated that ship collisions kill one to two right whales a year...and probably more that we don't see the bodies of. In a population this small, that's a significant percent..."Most of the collisions with whales are with large ocean going ships and not with sailboats, but collisions with sailboats due occur. News article in The Royal Gazette, a Bermuda paper, titled "Solo sailor Paris in pain after encountering pair of whales" (April 17, 2003)."Bermudian sailor Alan Paris was left bruised and shaken after a close encounter with a pair of whales shortly after setting off on the final leg of his round the world adventure...was sailing in light seas and at approximately 7.5 knots of boat speed when we came to a full stop...I was at the nav station doing the daily noon log entries at the time. As I got up to rush on deck to see what we had hit, the boat was rocked again by a second impact that threw me back onto the nav station landing me full on my back and bruising ribs on my left side. Up on deck I looked into the water and it was awash with blood and I clearly sighted two whales, one under the boat and one off to the port side..."Whales may not be able to hear a sailboat if it drifting in calm waters under sail. News article in The Royal Gazette titled "Family survives collision with deep sea giant" (May 07, 2003)."A family whose yacht was damaged when it was struck by a huge whale arrived safely in Bermuda late Monday night...Georg Reygers said the whale hit their 49-foot yacht Compinche in calm waters, 320 miles off Bermuda on Friday. Mr. Reygers, was in the salon below with his daughters Cecilia, six, Tatiana, 10, and Tamara, 12, while his Brazilian wife Ingrid was steering above...My wife was enjoying the sun and the calm water conditions, then there was an enormous bang like an explosion and we all jumped out...My wife screamed and saw this huge whale which was bigger than the boat. The only thing I saw was a big spot of blood on the water when it had dived away...I immediately checked the boat because it was a horrible crack. There was chaos onboard and I dived down to see the damage and realised the rudder and the skeg (which protects the prop shaft) were damaged..."A lot of sailors assume that the whale’s underwater echo locating ability along with it’s acoustic gathering ability makes them aware of everything around them. Whales use echo locating to detect objects in the water, but echo locating also gives away their position to predators like Orcas who might be in the area. If whales aren’t hunting or are traveling in deep waters, they might not emit echo locating sounds to detect objects in the water. A sailboat under sail might be too quiet for whales to detect by only listening to sounds generated by the sailboat without generating echo locating sounds. I’ve never seen whales while sailing, but if I do spot whales while under sail, I’ll make use they know I’m there by starting my engine and running it at idle. The noise of an idling engine would be like wearing bear bells when you’re backpacking in Grizzly bear country.Sometimes by just sailing, we affect the environment in un-intentional ways.Fair Winds.Clyde