Bananas on a Boat are Bad Luck!

Bananas have been cultivated in the Indus Valley as far back as 2000 B.C. The banana's nickname is "Fruit of the Wise". Ironic... especially when you consider it is a favorite food of monkeys, who enjoy hurling bodily waste products towards visitors at the zoo.

Bananas are Bad Luck for those zoo visitors of course, but a maritime superstition says they are bad luck for boats as well! The origin of this superstition is uncertain, but many believe it was started around the 17th century when a transatlantic crossing was a very risky endeavor. Storms, shipwrecks, pirates, and disease all claimed the lives of those attempting this dangerous voyage.

Scurvy was a limiting factor for ocean travel. The ancient Greeks knew about scurvy.  From the 15th to 19th centuries, sailors knew to help fight against scurvy it was imperative to have fresh fruit aboard. The ultimate cause of scurvy was not known until 1932.

Often vessels would stop along the way in tropical islands to gather provisions such as food and water.  There, crew would purchase wooden crates of bananas from the locals and bring them aboard the ship.  These crates would have all manner of critters in them. Specifically, within the bunches of bananas, there were spiders. Spiders that are extremely poisonous.  It didn't take long for sailors to realize that bringing bananas on board caused others to become sick or even die.

Never Leave on a Friday!

For most of us, Friday is known as the 6th day of the week. However, believe it or not, there is an ISO standard (ISO8601) that declares Friday as the 5th day.  Friday has been maligned throughout history for its bad luck. Friday the 13th, Good Friday, and Black Friday are all examples.

Many Sailors believe it's bad luck to leave port on a Friday. There is a longstanding superstition in the British Royal Navy that it's unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday. That has led to the story of the HMS Friday.

The reluctance of seamen to sail on a Friday reached such epic proportions, that in the 19th century, the British Government decided to take strong measures to prove the fallacy of the superstition. They laid the keel of a new vessel on Friday, selected her crew on a Friday, launched her on a Friday and named her HMS Friday. Then, Captain James Friday was placed her in command and sent her to sea for the first time on a Friday. The scheme worked well, and had only one drawback ... neither ship nor crew was ever heard from again.

Although HMS Friday is believed to be false, This century old story tells of the superstitious nature of sailors.

Safety Equipment Has Arrived!

Since Distant Horizon is nearly ready and just waiting for me to return from Virginia, I started ordering safety equipment.

Typically the list of required safety equipment is fairly short for a boat on the Great Lakes.

• One PFD for each person on board
• One Type V, throwable type of PFD
• Two Marine Type USCG B-I Fire Extinguishers
• Three combination (day/night) red flares
• A sufficient way to make a sound signal, not a human voice

However, when considering an ocean voyage, the list grows rapidly. When I arrived home on Friday, this is what was waiting for me by the front door.
More is on the way. :-)

Shipping Traffic

I mentioned in a previous post, that on my departure, I would have help getting away from New York City to avoid the shipping traffic. Here is a quick look at the shipping traffic around New York City down to the Delaware.

This image was captured on the morning of March 15th, 2012. In this view, there are 137 ships. The ocean is a busy place!

That red ship in the lower right corner, is a Tanker. It is 261 nautical miles from Sandy Hook, NJ; my intended point of departure.

Maintaining a good watch, 24 hours a day is vital to the safety of Distant Horizon and her crew.

New Sails!

180% Drifter 

Two new sails are being added to Distant Horizon's inventory. First, a storm jib. This is a very small sail flown ahead of the mast in gale or storm conditions. The leading edge of the sail, the luff, will be a flourescent orange color to help with visibility.

The other sail being added is for exactly the opposite end of the spectrum... very, very, very calm weather. All the other sails are made of Dacron. This sail, the Drifter, is made of nylon. Actually, very light nylon and has many other technical qualities built into the sail for light wind sailing.

Since these sails can be made with colored material, a fair amount of thought went into the color scheme. I finally went with the red and blue on a white sail for visibility. A flourescent yellow is the most visible color, but I couldn't find a complementary color that I liked. I think the red and blue will stand out during the day. At times of poor visibility, like twilight and fog, the darker blue will help but turning on the decklights to backlight the sail will help the most. For this reason, I tried to maximize the white color.

Self Steering!

Hydrovane... 

For Distant Horizon to be completely ready for her trip to Bermuda, there are still some items needed. The first item, is the self steering system.  This is effectively an autopilot that does not need batteries. I chose Hydrovane for several reasons:

• it can be used as an emergency rudder
• it is does not connect to the main rudder; reducing overall wear to the steering system. 
• I can still turn the wheel in an emergency
• it can be used in conjunction with the existing autopilot system

The Hydrovane was ordered with the optional 3nm LED stern light. Having an AIS to know what ships are in the area is one thing, but having those ships see us better... priceless!

Once Distant Horizon is balanced, she will sail straight for a considerable distance without me making corrections with the wheel. This is due to the modified fin keel. Eventually, she slowly turns toward the wind and I have to make a course correction with the wheel. With the self steering system, the windvane will fly straight while the boat is on course. Then, when Distant Horizon turns slightly, the windvane will be deflected by the wind change. That deflection will, in turn, cause its own rudder to move; turning Distant Horizon back on course with the windvane flying straight again.

The order has been placed for the Hydrovane. It is scheduled to arrive in mid-March; leaving me plenty of time for the installation.

I mentioned the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in the previous post. The system was originally devised for collision avoidance by continuously transmitting vessel information on VHF Radio frequencies. This information includes the vessel's identification, position, speed, and course, along with other relevant information. Other vessel's and land-based stations can monitor this information. AIS worked so well, its use was made mandatory world-wide in 2002 for all passenger ferries and by all ships exceeding 300 gross tons.

Standing in the cockpit of Distant Horizon, the visible horizon is about 3.5 miles away. When a ship is spotted, it will take about 20 minutes for that ship to overtake Distant Horizon. That leaves a few precious moments to ensure we are not on a collision course and, if we are... then, to take evasive actions.

VHF radio waves travel in a straight line from antenna to antenna. My VHF antenna is at the top of the mast; just over 50 feet above the water. Typically with VHF the range would be 25-30 miles or so. Using AIS, gives a ships direction and speed at nearly eight times the distance as compared to visual means. This extends the safety zone around Distant Horizon. Additionally, in heavy rain, fog, or haze, the AIS can still "see" ships at a safe distance.

Standard Horizon GX2150 AIS Matrix+

Rather than installing a seperate AIS receiver, I chose to purchase an integrated system using the Standard Horizon Matrix AIS+ VHF radio. With the remote mic in the cockpit, all the AIS information is right there. AIS doesn't replace keeping a good watch. It provides additional information to those on watch; making each voyage safer.

Another use of AIS, which I have found extremely useful is obtaining a current weather forecast.  Since I know the ship's name, I can hale them on the radio. When requesting the latest weather forecast from a ship, they will respond with their current three day forecast; allowing us to have a current weather forecast available at most times.

I have heard people say that ships won't answer such a radio call. In my experience, that has happened exactly once... and that ship had no markings. So, I assumed it was a military ship.Even before AIS, I have never failed to communicate with a commercial shipping vessel at sea. It's not luck. The international language for commercial communications is English. This is true for maritime shipping as well as aviation. Most ships have crews from countries where English is a second, possibly third, language. They are required to log their radio communications. So, given the opportunity to speak English, the person on watch always does respond.

This is one of my sextants. It is a 1917 Kelvin & Hughes.   

The marine sextant measures the angle between two points. It is best known as an instrument for measuring the altitude of  the sun, moon, planets, or stars above the horizon. For centuries, it has been used as the primary tool to reliably navigate across open expanses of the world's oceans.

 The marine sextant is an equally useful tool for coastal navigation in the hands of a navigator adept in its use. With the sextant, the navigator can determine the range (distance) from an object of a known height, like a lighthouse or radio tower. The sextant can be used to establish a fix (location) by turning the sextant horizontal and measure the angle between two fixed objects. The sextant can be used to obtain an accurate time of day to set the ship's clock.

The voyage from New York City to Bermuda is planned to take five-and-a-half days. Although Distant Horizon has a primary GPS and 5 other devices that contain GPS receivers, two consecutive days will be dedicated to celestial navigation. The first two days of the voyage will use GPS. This is because the Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver requires a GPS input. AIS provides important information from ships. It will take roughly two days to get far away from the shipping channels leading to NY. So, Safety first!