A R T I C L E S

A day in the life on Polarity Solo
by Paul Metcalf

It’s day 5 since I left Brazil to sail solo the 5000nm or so to Lorient on the Biscay coast of France. I raced down to Brazil double handed taking part in the “Transat Jacques Vabre” a huge French race that had a quarter of a million people come and see the boats in Le Harve . The return trip whilst not a race, could hardly be called a cruise, as a trip that leaves sunshine and the laid back lifestyle of Brazil to sail a few thousand miles upwind to finish in the Bay of Biscay in January is not generally done for pleasure!

I have noticed a pattern with the longer solo trips I have done (and similar double handed) Day 5 is when life gets balanced. Day 1 I run on adrenalin, knowing I should get as much sleep in as possible, I can’t, I’m just too wired up. Day 2 I feel lousy, not sea sick but just out of sorts. Day 3 I am starting to work out how I can quit and do something else, go somewhere else! Day 4 – big change - feeling much better, eating and sleeping better, starting to enjoy it. Day 5 really loving it and catching upon all the stuff I missed or that appeared in the first few days, running around tweaking the boat for speed, cleaning up and knocking off the chores list.

So here I am day 5, springing out of bed after a solid set of 30 minute naps around 10am. First thing, 8knts of boat speed means not enough sail – there’s a song for most occasions and this one always warrants a vocal rendition of “I see you babe shakin’ that reef, shakin’ that reef”. I take the opportunity to run a new second tack line that was removed for racing (needed the clutch for something more esoteric but I forget what). Then it’s a breakfast of fried potatoes (bought in France 6 weeks prior) and an egg. The dubious smell from the egg box warrants an egg cleaning, and re packing – losing a few nasty ones in the procedure.

Firing up the engine to charge the batteries, I noticed that one of the batteries might be under-performing I dig out the multi-meter and start looking for voltage drops, sure enough the port battery has a loose clamp, a quick wrench and 0.2v of drop disappears. Strange thing was that the problem was with the starboard battery, more tests required…

Then it’s on to the laptop whilst the engine is running (3 amps the thing draws!) pick up the weather that Saildocs has sent me and any other email. The grib file has good news, looks like I can carry the SE’lys up to 6 or 7 deg N. I stay on course pointing at the Cape Verdes and for the 20th time this week wonder if my weather strategy is right. I use Visual Passage Planner to help – it’s a computerised version of all those Pilot Charts that give the average wind dir/strength for thousands of locations. So like most averages it’s almost guaranteed to be wrong but it’s a place to start. I compare that with what I have and what the grib shows and start thinking about the Azores high position and how the Doldrums might pan out.

The winds dropped again and it’s time to shake that last reef. This time before taking the reef out I re- run the first reef line the other side of the second at the boom end (found that little problem at 3 am..) and try something new with the outhaul – the track ripped out the boom on the way down so I made up a new Dyneema rope type track in Brazil but its not really working 100%. A quick trip to the end of the boom then it’s reef out. The mods look good and we are back at around 9.5 knts.

Break out the fishing line and home made lure (bought the hooks but I’m too cheap to pay 25 eur for a plastic squid!) Not sure what I am going to catch at 9-10knts but I expect just as much with the home made one as with the 25 eur catch-o-matic-squid-o-rama. i.e. Nothing.

Chinese noodles for lunch – with an egg that I dropped earlier! Talking of dropping there goes the wind again, so its time for a quick rendition of “roll out the genoa (barrel)” and 9 knots once more. Since the sea has dropped I grab a tube of sealant and start hunting down a few window leaks that seem to have developed over the last 7,000nm since I last did them, wiping the salt off with a chamois, moistened with a few drops of precious fresh water, then cleaning with neat alcohol. I hope the sea stays down long enough for the goop to set. Also add a “rope seal” to the forward hatch – one of whose handles broke a couple of days ago- letting in an enormous amount of water (well it is submerged most of the time above 9 knts) which is good for bilge pumping exercise but…

Back in the galley and I try an idea that occurred to me upon opening a packet of Brazilian, sweet coconut, vanilla, biscuit type things. Basically using them to make a bread pudding desert with some instant milk, raisins, another one of those …ahem.. dropped eggs, and a spoon full of sugar. Baked it in the pan and left it to cool - whilst I went off to cool off with a few buckets of sea water on the back deck. It was delicious especially with a mug of fresh filter coffee – have to take advantage of the fine weather!

Thinking about Biscay I decide to revise all the safety strops on the backstay and runners, adding some Dyneema lashings and replacing others – As long as the stay itself is in one piece these should avert disaster should something else break.

The wind eases back another 10 degrees so I set up the toerail vang to settle the sail shape. Her gooseneck is just a few inches off the deck so like most of these boats there is no permanent vang. Feeling the sun a bit I dive below and settle down for a swot up on interpreting IR and VS images with a copy of “Weather Predicting Simplified”, which has lots of great IR images that the author seems to be able to extract an amazing amount of information from. Practice, practice

Returning the book to its water resistant box I notice Nigel Calders Boat maintenance book which reminds me that the engine oil needs changing and since the weather is so slow…well there is no time like the present. Half an hour and some very oily hands later, another job off the list. I want to change the fuel filter but due to salt water contamination of the spares box on the way down I only have one filter left so I decide that it can wait in case of a fuel problem sometime in the next 4000nm. Hands are taken care of thanks to Mike Golding’s sponsors – Ecover who donated a super hand cleaner at the start of the TJV.

Wind away the fishing line as darkness descends, trim the sails again, mess with the Autopilot and come down below to write the log, check on the days run (204nm – ok considering light winds),check the batteries, write this and start thinking about a nap and some dinner before the evening watch.

Paul Metcalf
Polarity Solo
www.polaritysolo.com