It is beautiful on deck alone on watch while sailing during the night. Amazingly beautiful. Just you, the ocean swishing by and the stars watching over you, watching over the boat.
I didn't think I would find it beautiful. I thought that doing watches while sailing at night would be the hardest thing I would have to do. And definitely something to avoid as much as possible.
We had planned, when we set off from Albany, that on this first part of our journey that we would day-sail and hop from anchorages and wharfs all the way to Esperance. Then after that, when we set off from here we would day-sail for two days and then do the hard bit. Across the Bight. Then we would sail for however many days and nights it took to reach Port Lincoln.
But our plans changed.
Hmm, that's what happens when you sail!
When we left Two People's Bay just near Albany we thought we would sail to Bremer Bay and make it just as night fell. If the winds held us back we had a plan that we would call in at another bay and drop anchor for the night, and complete our sail to Bremer the following day.
By sunset though it was clear that we were not near a suitable anchorage and so we made the decision to sail through the night. We calculated that by very early morning we would then be at Bremer Bay. So this would be our first night sail of the journey.
We had a plan for night sailing. Strategies thought through during the planning part of the trip, so it was implementation time!
Our plans were to take turns at being on watch - two hours at a time. Peter would take 8 - 10, me 10 - midnight, Peter midnight to 2 am , then me 2 am - 4 am and then finally Peter would do the last shift as the sun rose from 4am till 6 am. We had an alarm clock which we set for each shift's start so that no one would ever be left for longer than their allotted time.
In addition to our watch times we have another alarm which is kept in the cockpit for when we are on watch. It is set for 10 minutes. Whenever it goes off we re-set it. The idea is that you will doze and its ok, the alarm will never allow you to doze for more than ten minutes. Each time the alarm goes off, if you are awake or have dozed off, it is time to check everything. Check for ships on the horizon, check the wind, the sails, the speed, our position. It takes around ten minutes from when you see a ship on the horizon until it is close enough to be a problem. That's why ten minutes is the time we set the alarm for.
If something is a problem, our rule is that the person on watch must wake the other and ask for assistance - especially when it's me on watch! And no one on watch is ever to leave the cockpit without waking the other person. We have read of people who did leave, while on watch alone, and went overboard - they were not missed until the next person came on watch - too late to be found.
We have our harnesses on, and realistically, we can't go overboard, but even so, we decided to apply this rule for our complete safety.
And so the first night sail began.
The children went below to bed. This was also a first. Up until this time they had still struggled with being below when sailing, but for this first bit of night sailing the children and I all curled up on the double bed.
When the alarm went off alerting me that it was TIME I literally bounced out of bed!
Peter gave me a run-down of how things were, the sails were down, we had no wind at all and the motor was on, keeping us on track. Then he went to sleep and I was there alone.
I thought I would find it hard. That I would be tired and fall asleep and that would be so bad. That being alone on deck I would be scared.
Actually it was not hard at all.
Of course it was tiring - and I did doze a lot - but the ten minute interval alarm meant it didn't matter. Every ten minutes I checked everything and then settled back down. Often I dozed, sometimes I didn't. But there was no anxiety.
In fact I found it lovely to watch over the family and the yacht in the darkness. It was so like the many years I spent up with sick children and new babies who had no idea that day and night were different. The motion of the boat in the dark on the vast water was simply awesome, not to mention the breathtaking beauty of the star-filled skies.
We have snacks and drinks on hand in the cockpit locker - little packs of nuts, a few lollies and fruit. Little things that make that potentially lonely time just a little more comfortable.
The first night sail took us into Bremer Bay. Then, when it was time to leave Bremer we planned to sail day/ night/ day to Esperance rather than trying to make it a two day sail with an over-night stop as we had originally planned.
On this second night sail we had a lot more wind. We were fully under sail and not motoring as we had been the previous night when there was no wind. That was actually a bit harder for me - it is Peter who manages the sails and not me - though I help as needed. Still, I was worried about wind shifts during my watch and how I would manage. Peter dealt with my concerns by ensuring that the sails were perfectly set at the beginning of each of my watches, trimmed and prepared for the next little while. He then assured me that if there was an unexpected wind shift I should simply wake him.
He slept and I was fine. I was so happy after the first couple of watches that his management had made it all so much easier than I had expected. I definitely recommend, if you are going to cruise, that you pick the right man to do it with!
Having faced what seemed like a hard thing, and found it to be so far from hard, our next step, sailing across the Bight, feels amazingly more manageable.