Chapter 46

"The shortest distance from Las Palmas to the Caribbean would be over the nearby north coast of Gran Canaria and then west-southwest passing to the south of the other Canary islands but," Tracy explained "with the wind from the NE I'm heading down the east coast of Gran Canaria so that the island doesn't block the wind and we get south more quickly to where the trade-winds will help us on our way,"

"Those trade-winds are why you met you friend Bonny here and why if you carry on sailing you'll regularly meet old friends. We're one of the ocean's migratory species using the tropical trade winds to sail east to west around the world."

Leaving Las Palmas we were all up and about but Tracy explained there would be 3 watch leaders: Tracy, Bruce and Bill in that order, working 4 hours on and 8 hours off starting this evening at 8 pm. We 3 others: Sheila, Venus and Isaac would similarly work 4 hours on and 8 off but starting at 6 pm.

Over dinner at 5:30 pm, which Sheila cooked, Tracy further laid out her way of doing things. "There are other watch systems, and if you don't like mine sorry but tough - this boat is not a democracy! I will show you things such as how I want lines cleated and made up and that is the way you will do them while on WorthIt Even if you don't like my way; in the pitch dark you won't have to try to work out what someone else did because they will have done what everyone does. On food Sheila is in charge and we'll take turns to help her with the main meal served at 5:30 pm. Other meals it's fend for yourself from what Sheila has picked for the day.

Giving some thought to what Tracy had told us it all kind of made sense - Bill was watch leader rather than Dad because he was a lot more experienced at sea, and Tracy had chosen the watch system so that the least experienced, Sheila and I, shared Tracy's watch. It didn't seem terribly fair that Sheila had extra duties beyond the rest of us or that Bruce would always be stuck with the midnight to 4 am watch but they were paid professionals while the only cash for the rest of us was whatever Dad was charging for his electrical work.

Joining Tracy on watch at 10 pm, or 22:00 as it was called on board, I could just see the lights on the southern tip of Gran Canaria and that was the last last land we'd see for 2 or 3 weeks. The wind was from the port quarter at about 15 knots, the nearly full mainsail was out to starboard and the jib (foresail) was being held out to port by a line led to the port bow as well as the normal sheet running to the port quarter

Tracy knew that I'd never sailed a multihull before and apologised saying "You may learn some bad sailing habits on WorthIt as she is a charter boat with the simplest sails we can have on rollers and much more weight than a racing catamaran so slower. Still she is much lighter and faster than a monohull that could carry the same number of people so I hope you enjoy it." As we were doing about 10 knots I wasn't about to complain but I didn't understand why we were so fast. "It's like riding a bicycle - we make our own wind which combines with the real wind - moving forward at 10 knots with 22 knots of wind behind us we only feel 12 knots of wind on deck and it's not until you notice the white caps that you realise there is more wind than it feels."

Sharing a watch with Tracy was like a lot like working with a younger version of my mother. As we alternated steering - there was no autopilot unless Dad could fix it - conversation wandered but never became frivolous. I did wonder if I could make her laugh!

Just before midnight Bruce appeared with a cup of tea for me and a hot Ovaltine for Tracy. As he'd come out of the cabin I'd noticed that he'd been using a red light in the galley which I appreciated as it takes me ages to regain my night vision after a flash of white light. For some time the three of us kept watch as we enjoyed our hot drinks each trying to be the first to spot one of the slower ARC yachts that had set off 4 hours before us from Las Palmas. Even after going inside supposedly to fill in the log and sleep I noticed Tracy only got as far as the radar screen where she sat peering on the chance of seeing a small boat's radar reflection.

Watching for hazards ahead was one thing but glancing back at Bruce steering was an unexpected hazard in itself as by the small compass light, at 25 he looked a lot like a young Johnny Depp. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately as Sheila had first dibs on him, he wasn't Australian like Sheila, and the name Bruce came originally from a charter guest as a tease: my watch leader was a very nice, thoughtful frightfully well-spoken boy called Rupert. A capable sailor but what is often described as ‘not the sharpest knife in the drawer.’ Clearly I'm sexist because I was dismissing Rupert for no better reason than had been given to the thousands or even millions of women described as ‘dumb blondes’

At 01:40 I woke Dad and we went through the usual change of watch ritual at 02:00 but instead of heading to bed I offered to take a spell on the radar so Tracy could get some sleep -I may have got some Brownie points for that.

Nature being what it is, only half an hour later I spotted a blip 3 miles ahead which was 20 minutes away if it was stationary, more if it was moving in the direction we were going, less if coming toward us. I passed on the news to Bruce and Dad then shuffled backward and forward until they had it's masthead light in view. Only at the last minute could we see it was a monohull yacht of about 35' and even then not see if there was anyone on deck. Maybe we should have changed course to give them more clearance, maybe gone closer to check it was ok as they didn't answer the VHF radio. There isn't a right answer other than to say without a good watch and their light we could easily have hit them as could a ship hit us!