Disorientation

At Sea, N 39 51 W 72 41

Saturday, July 8 2006

Last night, for the first and only time, I wished that we didn't have a GPS. Libby had the watch and I was trying
to sleep. I didn't get much sleep the night before so I was really tired. We were on starboard tack and our
course was north.

After some time, the wind died entirely and we were becalmed. However, there was a southerly current so Tarwathie
drifted south with the current. I was awoken by the sound of the engine starting. I went on deck and asked Libby why.
She said, "I don't know how, but I was heading north but we got turned around south." I went back to sleep. Soon, the
engine started again and I woke up. Then again and again. Finally, Libby said, "I can't make her head north." Then
I really awoke and looked at the instruments, then I understood the confusion.

When we are becalmed, we have no motion through the water. Therefore the rudder becomes useless. One moves the
rudder this way and that, yet the compass indication becomes uncorrelated. However, because of current drift, we still have motion relative to the earth and that is what the GPS faithfully indicates. It also orients the little boat-shaped symbol on the screen to point southward. Libby would see that and incorrectly assume that the bow was actually pointed south. She would start the engine to turn us around (because the rudder wouldn't work without motion). We would turn in a circle and the GPS would respond to indicate our absolute motion. But as soon as the engine was stopped, the southerly drift would resume. It was very disorienting out there in the middle of the ocean, at night with cloud cover and no visual cues.

It occurs to me that in this special case we would be better off with no GPS. On the other hand, I doubt that I'll shut the GPS off; it's addictive.

One more anecdote. The engine started again one final time and it stayed running longer than the other times. I went up on deck to see what was happening and I saw the stern of a ship going away from us. Libby was holding the radio and she said that she had a nice conversation with the captain of that ship. Somewhat mysteriously, she didn't explain what they were talking about.

Sigh, my original pessimistic prediction of 4-5 days to get to Block Island seem accurate. It is now 51 hours since we left Cape May and we progressed 105 miles made good of the 200 mile passage. It sure would be welcome if we could get some more favorable wind. If we could get SW 10-15 knots we could be there in another 24 hours.

p.s. Libby's seasickness is better today.

p.p.s. I lost the instructions for how to send updates to our position reports for the bread crumb trail linked on our blog. I promise to resume when I get the info.

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