July 14th

Happy Bastille Day!!

Embraer 175

My third flight today, the Portland, Oregon to DFW leg, was on an Alaskan Airlines Embraer 175 regional jet. It had great legroom; Drew & Lucas would fit very well in this plane.

Art vs. Science?

As I was flying from Toulouse, France to Frankfurt, Germany today, I noticed a distinct difference in how the countryside is laid out in France vs. Germany. The French farm fields seem to be laid out like a jigsaw puzzle and the German fields much more rectilinear.

Solo (reprise)

I covered the more technical aspects of solo sailing relating to sleep schedules a few days ago. However, when reflecting back on the "scariest" moments I had during my crossing, there were a few incidents where I fell sound asleep for a couple hours. These incidents felt at the time that I had blacked out - not just fallen asleep but completely lost about two hours of consciousness in its entirety. This was in spite of having alarms set to go off between every 15-30 minutes so I could 1) assure sail trim was proper and 2)  verify no boats or ships (or land) was in close proximity. Normally, in my 15-30 minute sleep cycles I would only be 90% asleep and many times awoke before the alarm went off.  That said, when I awoke I wasn't fully conscious either; typically just acting robot-like to check the sails, do a horizon scan, check the AIS display and nod back off. At times I had intended to add into this task list to connect my iPhone to the sat phone and poll to see if Sal had sent a text message (about another 30 seconds) as we tried to talk occasionally after she got home from work but this was the middle of the night for me due to my time zone.  This "extra effort" was well beyond my mental capacity much of the time, I think partly because I knew in advance that it would be successful less than 1 time in 10 as Sal has a busy and variable schedule. I suppose if I had deemed it "critical to the mission" I could have had better success. Typically this would have entailed another 30 seconds of activity with the last 10 seconds just waiting for the system to poll. That 10 seconds is super tough as there is nothing to do but to try to remain conscious. I certainly get a failing grade on that count. 

So back to the "black out" episodes...

Reflecting back on my transit from the BVI's to Florida (through the Turks & Caicos and Bahamas) I also had a similar blackout event. When this first happened I viewed it as an aberration and chastised myself for a moment of weakness. Every night when I started this sleep-cycle process around 11:30pm I would have a "fully conscious" discussion with myself (not out loud) on the discipline required for the night as my nighttime self had a separate voice to rationalize shortcutting steps, i.e. "I'll just check the sails this time, the AIS will alert if we're on a collision course and who would be way the "F" out here on this course in a boat without AIS (and not maintaining a watch)" 

So overall it was a pretty rational voice which takes a lot of discipline to counteract. (I had varying levels of success in dealing with my unruly, disrespectful, and disagreeable semi-conscious self)

On my crossing I had two instances where this battle between my conscious and semi-conscious self was temporarily silenced in its entirety. I awoke each time afterwards with a start; realizing each time that the boat had been underway without a captain. These moments of realization were truly scary for me. At all other times I felt mostly "in tune" with the boat and felt that I was mostly aware of a significant wind change or change in the boat's motion.   In reality I don't think the "blackout moments" were 100% true because I was super-paranoid about running the boat aground when near land so I was always extra-vigilant on a tack that could put us aground if I fell asleep for a few hours. Ditto if I anticipated a weather change. So somehow the brain has a self-preservation circuit that can't be switched off entirely even though my conscious self felt completely disconnected from it. 

I haven't read accounts of other single-handlers in modern times, just people like Slocum, Moitessier, and Knox-Johnston; but all of those were in a different age, although Sir Robin  (Knox-Johnston) participated in last year's Route de Rhumb, a solo transatlantic race at the age of 72?

I suspect many current solo sailers don't publicize their methods due to potential litigation issues if an accident were to occur. But maybe I just haven't looked closely enough. 

So this process, and my objective technical success, since I met my goal without any real mishaps while underway, I find internally quite rewarding even if an outside observer saw me as just a lucky firefly in a shooting gallery :-)

The U.S. of A.

It's been an eye-opening experience as I've gone from country to country how different the US is from most other countries. As we are flying towards Portland, there was an announcement on filling out the US immigration/customs form. Do NOT do an upstroke on the "1" and do not cross the "7". In Europe, a one tends to be written like an inverted "V". The opposite does not happen, when entering Europe (or other countries I've visited) they do not tell you how to write your characters with conformity. Overall, we seem much more restrictive, as I learned when trying to bring my boat into the US. We seem to hold a very unusual place in the world today. I'm curious if those that have traveled more extensively than I feel the same.

German security

I had to go through airport security again in Frankfurt. These Germans don't mess around. My crazy backpack that looks like a black blob under the x-ray wasn't going to get through like in France. They pulled everything out one by one for examination. In the meantime they called over two policemen with rifles and bulletproof vests to oversee the operation and to quiz me on specifics of some of the items. They also ran a swab test and told me I had some type of chemical residue that caused concern. In the end I passed muster and they gave me my 4 trays of stuff for me to repackage.
I'm now planning my next adventure. I'm thinking about doing the opposite trip of what I just finished: high latitude (arctic) instead of tropical, high speed (near the speed of sound) instead of 8 knots, and with several hundred people instead of just a few (or one). Here's my planned route:

Moitessier quote

There are two terrible things for a man: not to have fulfilled his dream, and to have fulfilled it.

Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

I guess that means I need to find a new one to chase...