Icing and escape hatches

                     Winch starting to ice up, I leave the winch handles in to stop socket icing up - Ideally a hard cover would be good, to enable instant use. Also in extreme conditions tiller may ice up as happened to Totorore.

The other day I was thinking about Berserk, and it got me thinking about hatches and icing and getting stuck inside a boat.... What got me thinking was that Jarle has finally spoken out
and it makes interesting reading...

So what I was thinking (all this thinking was starting to hurt..) was that in a severe icing condition at sea it seems quite possible that the hatches could get badly iced up. I have always been abit claustrophobic, and the thought of being trapped below decks with a stuck hatch is terrifying.. So I guess it would be smart to have some means of forcing them open and also another escape option, hopefully not also iced up badly and frozen shut...

Sprirt of Sydneys main hatch. Note my boots

 Spirit of Sydney had a main companionway door that opened inwards (into the cabin). This is very unusual in my experience. I have never seen one that opens inwards before on any vessel, and it can be abit of a menace. It is heavy and if it gets loose could do damage to fingers and such. From an engineering perspective it is kind of backwards as well, with the major loads from a wave going entirely onto the closing dogs and hinges and trying to open the door, forcing it off the rubber seal rather than pushing it tighter onto the rubber seal with the loads evenly spread into the rim. But the door is strong enough, it has been well proven over many years and in the worst conditions at sea on this vessel.

Thinking about this strange door in relation to severe icing conditions - It would be much easier to open even if heavy snow and ice had filled the cockpit and blocked the doors. It would also be easy to open with a cockpit full of water, or after any event that meant the cockpit was obstructed (ie a dismasting with a broken piece of boom in the cockpit) - Infact I find it hard to imagine a scenario that would trap a person below with this door. I suppose the whole door frame being distorted might jamb it, but this would jamb any door.

Actually for any offshore sailing getting stuck below decks, or maybe even worse stuck on deck would be pretty dangerous. Rolf and Deborah From Northern Light told me about a main hatch securing rope getting caught in it's V cleat inside the boat locking the hatch shut. They were both on deck and quite a few days away from land - stuck outside with no food, water, shelter or tools (all below decks). Eventually (after long enough for the seriousness of the situation to sink in) the boat rolled heavily and the line freed itself.....Whew!!

Snow Petrel has a backup escape/entry hatches - My lazarette hatch only opens and closes from outside and my main-saloon skylight is always free to be opened from inside even when the dingy is ondeck and covering the forward hatch. But both could still be blocked by severe icing.... Maybe I should add an inwards opening hatch somewhere?

Ice melting fast, and wind dropping.

The only moderate icing I have had was whist at anchor and then the main hatch was protected by the dodger. We had to make sure our ventilators remained somewhat free of ice, but that was all, I think we probably had about a ton of ice onboard at it's peak.... Gerry Clark had some very bad icing on the little 32 foot "Totorore", while heading towards Boyvetoya, deep in the south Atlantic (55 south) in late September. It sounded horrible... It's well worth reading his book, probably the most epic small yacht voyage ever, and it was a voyage that did some very useful scientific work, by getting the first accurate data on seabird populations in the southern ocean and it's islands.

I am interested to know if anybody has experienced severe icing at sea on a yacht, what problems it caused, and how best to minimise it's dangers?

Cheers

Ben

Sailing podcasts and Furled Sails

"This is www dot furledsails dot com..." thus begins another excellent podcast by Noel and Christy. Together they have interviewed in their relaxed and informal way many interesting sailors from gunkholers and kayakers, through to world voyagers like the Pardys and yacht designers like Phil Bolger and Ted Brewer. Definately well worth a listen too. On the far right side of their page is an index to their podcasts, and after two years of sporadic listening I still haven't even got close to listening to all of them.

They are about 20-30 megabytes each and run for about an hour or so, just long enough to while away a boring flight or Bus trip. I download them free from the iphone itunes store, just search for "Furledsails" and you should be sorted for that next flight... Only problem is I don't have any space left on my crappy old iphone, so I have to delete the old ones before I load any new ones...

I'm sure it's just as easy from any other type of smartphone (which I may well get when my old dinosaur 3G  finally dies) but I don't know how its done. If anybody has an opinion on the best type of phone to replace my old 8 meg 3g iphone you can put something in the comments or email me.

I am considering donating to Noel and Christy - Given the amont of enjoyment they have provided me over the last few years it would be nice to reciprocate. They are the only ones I know doing this, but if any of you know of any more good sailing podcasts please let me know... and thanks again Noel and Christy, you've done a great job.

Cheers

Ben

Learn to sail in a dinghy first

John Vigor has just written an excellent piece extolling the virtues of learning to sail in a dinghy rather than a keelboat. Like all his stuff it's well worth a look. John is an author of many fantastic sailing books, and if you haven't read any of John's excellent books... well... get reading.

I can highly recommend his Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat as a brilliant place to start, and it has informed many of my better decisions, and the Boatowner's Handbook is a great resource with  lots of useful formulas and such for a boat nerd like me... Oh and John Vigor is also the inventor of the black box theory on safety, something I credit with helping to keep me alive at sea all these years...

So my ears (eyes?) perked up when I saw John's post about faster learning in a dinghy. Since I learnt to sail in a dinghy naturally I  reckon it is the best way to start... And I think the good grounding in seamanship and the "feel" it has given me has helped me at sea on everything from the 290 meter (950ft) Tokyo bay, down to my 17 foot kayak.

So a bit of background (or a chance for me to reminisce...), after sailing borrowed Optimists and Sabots for a few years we got a couple of cheap "P classes" when I was 8, they were beat up 7 foot 7 inch catboat style dinghys with an array of complex controls and a nasty streak such as a tendency to violently pitchpole (pigroot) given a moment's inattention, and they also carried some serious weather helm... But they were the best christmas and birthday presents ever, and over the years have taught many of the great NZ sailors such as Sir Peter Blake and Cris Dickson. We were very proud of our little boats.

Built from plywood, we repainted them black and put Swallows and Amazons skulls on the sides and I called mine "Death 'n Glory"... Well I didn't get much glory, but neither did I die so I guess I can't complain.

We first sailed them on a local lake, chasing each other around. The best trick we learnt was to sail through the underwater gate (in summer it was a paddock) and then close the gate behind us, trapping the pursuer until he could figure it out...

I did a Sailing School weekend at our local yacht club and after approximately 1 million capsizes and careering out of control around the harbour for a day or so, due to being a such a skinny little runt, far too light for the boat (thats my excuse anyway). I was awarded my most prized certificate, (see below) I was more proud getting this at 9 than when I got my chief mates. I particularly liked the bit where it says I was Safe and Competent, because I certainly wasn't fast..

"Death 'n Glory"

Slowly I graduated into bigger dinghys after a 4 years racing P classes. I even got a newer faster "P" called "Privateer". But I had learnt many things the hard way as skipper of my little vessel... like:

• Make sure the bungs are in before you go sailing... (sinking isn't fun..)
• Don't lose the rudder, and then the centreboard.... (rescue is embarrassing)
• Tie the forestay lanyard up properly (masts are impossible to put back up at sea)
• Check the forecast, and respect 20 knots, (and cold fronts are untrustworthy)
• Make your own decision on safety, and retire after 1 or 2 capsizes (a safety margin)
• Don't be afraid to put in a reef (once won a race by reefing before I went out)
• look under the sail occasionally (I hit a yacht, he wasn't looking either... and I was on starboard) 
• learn to duck really quickly... (the boom is called the boom for a reason)

Many these lessons are much better learnt on a little boat with help nearby, than far offshore on my own... Basically I learnt how to handle a boat in all conditions, on my own, and how to make my own decisions on tactics, weather and safety (as a sailing wimp I withdrew sometimes..) We sailed in an open bay outside of Napier, NZ, with strong 15-20 knot sea breezes, big swells and nasty southerly westerly cold fronts blowing us out to sea. I also learnt sail trim, how to surf down waves, and how to gybe the nasty wee boat without pitchpoling by getting her surfing first to reduce the apparent wind.

Over the years I have often heard the saying " if you can sail a P Class, you can sail anything"  , and there is certainly a grain of truth in it. The "Feel" learnt from sailing a small boat with nasty habits like the P class has never left me (at least I hope not..), and sometimes sailing Snow Petrel I close my eyes and sit on the windward coaming with the tiller extension in my hand and I can almost feel the memories and sensations of that little P class, bobbing into the short steep chop from 20+ years ago. Even when helming the 100 foot brigantine "Soren Larsen" echos from that little boat remain, in the slight kick of the helm as she slides over a swell, or the subtle heel and surge as a puff comes though....

So if you want to really learn to sail well, a good cheap way is to jump in a small overpowered dinghy for a season or two and start getting wet.... You will learn many fundamental skills much quicker than you will as crew on a larger boat.

And thanks John for the chance to dredge up those old memories.

Cheers

Ben

Ps I think I have broken the spell checker on this thing, overuse perhaps... so you can blame the dictionary for any errors

Keeping extremities warm in cold weather

Just cleaned out my car today, and found an old pair of mittens left over from my Antarctic trips. (don't ask what they were there for, maybe skiing last winter?). But it got me thinking about my two favorite pieces of gear, My mittens and my boots.

Crappy boots and gloves gave us no end of problems in Antarctica

When we took Snow Petrel down to Commonwealth Bay we had the good fortune to have lots of advice and help from Don and Margie McIntyre, an two amazing people who have spent more time at Commonwealth Bay than anyone else alive. They lent us a iridium phone, some survival suits, and lots of other very useful bits and pieces, but unfortunately we had no good wet weather boots or gloves.

We tried heavy duty washing up gloves over woolen thermals, and took lots of socks and put foam liners in our sea boots. Neither worked particularly well. The insulated rubber gloves were initially great but got very smelly and were hard to dry inside. We ended up using hot water bottles and hand warmers alot, getting them set up before any big job like dealing with shorelines. Even so our hands and feet were often cold, and by the time we got back to Tassie we had numb feet for a few months due to a kind of trench foot? (any thoughts on the medical diagnosis would be interesting...)

On the trip on Blizzard across to South America I thought I had learnt more - the boots would be OK, not as cold, but I was worried about my hands, Steering for 5 weeks from an exposed aft cockpit (no dodger to hide behind). So I wasted lots of money on the best gloves and mittens.... They proved next to useless (never buy skiing stuff for the ocean), and my fingertips suffered the same numbness that took weeks to go away.

Expensive but... SO toastie and warm...

When I got to the Falklands on good advice I bought some very expensive bright orange Dunlop Thermo+ boots. These boots a bulky but surprisingly comfortable, amazingly warm, and easy to keep clean and dry inside. They are lighter than they look and quickly became my standard outside wear, even on long walks ashore in Patagonia. They totally solve the cold feet problem. No wonder all the Antarctic charter yacht crew swear by them. How I wish I had had them on Snow petrel...

Sexy boots hey... Me and Karen two hours walk up a ridge in the Beagle Channel. No blisters yet...

So just the hands to sort out... Well Spirit of Sydney had a decent dodger, so my hands survived better, and the peninsular is much warmer than the Antarctic Mainland. But even then my fingers still got very cold handling shore lines and such.

The final solution to the hands problem came from Siggy (Sigurður Jónsson) from Borea adventures in Iceland who was my excellent first mate (and a superb cook) on Spirit of Sydney. He kindly gave me his Icelandic fisherman's Mitts when he went back to Iceland. Apparently the are cheap and common over there (good luck trying to find any in Australia..).

The ultimate mitts (so far..), reversible liners for drying and washing, and totally waterproof

These have sorted out the hands.. Mittens are alot warmer than gloves and they are quick to remove for fiddly tasks, easy to dry by pulling out the liner, And totally waterproof. Spirit of Sydney had a tell tale of water from the main engine syphon break that filled a little bucket near the helm. These mitts were often dipped in the warm water to take the chill off. Thank you Siggy..

Winter grip gloves are very comfortable, quick and easy to get on and off and although not waterproof they are great for any fiddly jobs. They are still quite warm even when wet, and dry quickly. they are much more comfortable to wear than neoprene.  Neoprene gloves are good for those really wet jobs like running shorelines, but are rather unpleasant to wear for any length of time, and not really all that warm for general use. 

The problems with alot of the other boots and gloves is that they get progressively damper inside from sweat even if they keep the water out ok, so they are warm for 3 days then get colder and colder..(and smellier and smellier..) You need to be able to wash and dry the insides easily.

I have seen some neoprene boots and they look pretty good (any feedback appreciated), but I like the way the Thermo+ stays open and loose, pumping air around the boot with each step, expelling any damp manky air.. My socks seem to stay dry right though a cold watch.

I just need to find a great solution for my head (the Antarctic division DORK hat worked ok but looks abit stupid...) and I am interested if any of you have any thoughts on good cold weather gear for hands and feet at sea, after all Australia is pretty warm so my testing opportunity's are limited.

Cheers

Ben

PS   I have just found AAC has two great article's with lots of good comments on keeping hands and feet warm. Well worth a look... I am constantly impressed by the quantity and quality of articles and comments at AAC, many thanks to Phyllis, John, Colin, and all contributers.

Questions, Comments or Contact

If anybody has any questions, off topic comments or wants to contact me you can do so by leaving a comment here, I check this pretty frequently so will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Alternately try emailing me at bensnowpetrel(at)yahoo.com.au but I as I get lots of crap in the email this page is probably better.

Cheers

Ben

Blogs, Ego's, and Nerdiness..

I Have been writing this stuff  now for about a month, I can tell you it's alot harder than it seems. Especially for me, I have always hated writing and at school I had to do remedial english... (I was excellent at maths and science... think it's called being a nerd) so I often wonder why I am bothering (some of you may also be thinking the same thought...)

I guess I wanted a place to put some of my ideas down, forums and comments make it hard to actually write as much as I need to explain myself... A chance remark "Ben, that was long enough to warrant it’s own blog!" by Nathan  got me to thinking...

Hopefully I will get better and my posts will get more coherent with practise (although I think alot of my earlier posts were actually better..). I have found some posts turn out OK and others seem to never be right and I fiddle with them for ages before either ditching them in disgust or chucking them on here, and hoping no one actually reads them.

What I end up writing is usually completely different to what I have in my minds eye when I start... It's all very hit and miss. I use spell checker constantly... And call on Karen in to have a look occasionally to make sure it is sort of OK (She finds my posts very boring and technical)

I ask myself how much ego is involved in all of this, and honestly have to say it's probably more than I am comfortable admitting, I check the stats more frequently than is healthy, and stress if I haven't got a post out for a while due to work (like last week) or just me stuffing about trying (without success) to turn the mess I have just written into a masterpiece (like last week)...

The highlight so far for me was John from Attainable Adventure Cruising recommending my blog, thank you John and I hope I won't cause you to regret the recommendation.

Surprisingly some people have come for a look, (mostly poached from Attainable Adventure Cruising) and google has found my site, causing some funny visits. Like the Google France search for "Sailing + Tits" that somehow found my Sextant and Tits on Bulls post, Probably not what he was expecting... Stats to date are 872 hits from some many countries around the world, most commonly being USA, Aussie and Canada.

My most popular (if you can call popular with a measly 88 views) is my Berserk... Lost in the Ross Sea? Post, goes to show bad news sells (we are pathetic creatures really...). 51 people were bored enough to look at Snow Petrel the boring details and 44 looked at the videos page.

Where to from here? I don't know, I am sure my posting frequency will drop. I hope the quality will improve and hopefully more people will comment if they find anything useful, if they disagree with what I have written, or have something to add (thank you Chris at Periodically Peregrine)... I guess I am trying to stimulate some thought, myself included.

I have just modified the layout to make it look cooler, let me know if you don't like it. And I put a followers thing on the page too, who knows - one day I may even get one! See John Vigor's always amusing writing about his followers...

I must admit to being surprised (and abit scared) by the number of visits, hopefully some of you have found something interesting amongst my more coherent efforts, and thanks for coming over and looking.

Cheers

Ben

PS For the fellow nerds out there

It is scary how much information gets tracked isn't it...

	Pageviews by Browsers Firefox  290 (33%) Safari  256 (30%) Internet Explorer  222 (26%) Chrome 70 (8%) Opera  7 (<1%) Mobile  6 (<1%) NetFront  2 (<1%) Pageviews by Operating Systems Windows  509 (59%) Macintosh  211 (24%) iPhone  67 (7%) Other Unix  38 (4%) iPad  20 (2%) Linux  4 (<1%)

Berserk and the "News"

Mild Icing, Berserk faced severe Icing..

Warning serious "RANT" follows... see Berserk...lost in the ross sea? for some background information.

It is interesting how quickly the "News" jump on any accident involving adventurers and like to quickly apportion blame, all the I told you so's come out and say it was irresponsible, dangerous, etc even before any proper analysis of the accident has been done. This certainly seems to be the case in the loss of "Berserk".

The "News" reports an experienced seafarer seeing the boat in Auckland and saying the boat was seaworthy but badly overloaded and the "News" then implies that this made her unsafe. But she successfully managed to sail down to the ice edge and then unloaded her unseaworthy cargo... when the accident happened she would not have been overloaded.

The "News" also reports that it was too late in the season when infact it is the only time of the year a yacht can get in, A quick look at the  National Ice Centre Charts  for the Ross sea will confirm this...

Apparently the weather was extreme, the worst in 20 years or so at the bases, and the worst ever seen by the Captain of the Ice class NZ warship HMNZS Wellington, which was damaged by the weather. Had it not been for this unusual extreme weather the vessel (in my opinion) most likely would have got home safely.

I note that the crew of Berserk only triggered their EPIRB (or it may have automatically triggered?) when the situation was truly life threatening. Unlike other sailors that have triggered expensive rescues due to non-life threatening things like a broken mast...

The problem with all this negativity is that underlying it is a push for more regulations, yet more ways to stop people being responsible for their own lives. It is a subtle yet pervasive, And effects an entire society's outlook on life.

There are many vested interests that would like to see Antarctica locked away for science and tourism, No doubt these same vested interests will be the loudest critics of any small low budget expedition like Jarle's... And once they have stopped the more extreme trips like Jarle's the Bureaucrats may well start on the smaller stuff - like - is it really safe to sail across the Atlantic in that little boat? 

These are some of my thoughts at the moment given the limited information I have. Hopefully in time a better picture of the voyage may come out so that we can all learn from it. Until then lets not jump to any conclusions... For futher reading look at the Sea shepherd news They were involved in the search, and have have accurate information about the conditions.

I would be interested in your thoughts....