Dolphins Can Stay Awake For 15 Days???

 
Dolphins can stay awake… for 15 days??? 

This news just in from the online UK newspaper, The Telegraph:  

In fact, dolphins may be able to stay awake for longer. Recent scientific testing in California of two smart bottlenosed dolphins, called Nay and Say, was planned for 30 days but was curtailed after 15 due to a storm.

Apparently dolphins can sleep with one eye open and half of their brain – called unihemispheric sleep. This ‘allows them to come to the surface every so often to breath, and remain constantly vigilant for sharks.’ 

—————-

This is exactly the kind of performance I need from a First Mate. Should take about 28 days to cross the Atlantic, from the Canaries to the Caribbean.

I need a First Mate who can be constantly vigilant twenty four hours a day making sure we don’t get run down by a freighter or bump into a whale or a shark en route.  

When solo-sailing oceans, you can normally only nap for 15 minutes at a time. Then you’ve got to wake up and scan the horizon for ships. 20 minutes is the approx length of time it takes a cargo ship to blast from the horizon across the waves over to crush your boat (should you happen to be on a collision course).

That’s why I’ve been training the Can Opener for months with ‘sleep interruption drills’. But now I can…

(Can Opener: You mean walking on my face at 3am wasn’t just about opening the smoked oyster tin for you?)

…now I can replace the Can Opener with a dolphin First Mate that is vigilant non-stop day and night AND catches his own food!  

Huh. Last week I wanted to eat a dolphin. Today I want to adopt one. Times change. This news puts a whole new spin on things…

Can Opener: Eat one of them??– that was a basking shark! …Hey, replace ME??

Captain Cat: A shark? (Really?) Well… same difference.

Can Opener: Replace me? Who would polish your orb, catalogue your wig collection, write your Jackie Chan fan letters?

Captain Cat: …Good point. Good enough to make me pause whilst drafting my profile for the dolphin dating site I just bookmarked…

Can Opener: I‘ve got the opposable thumb, Furrball. I‘m the only one ’round here bookmarking anything. That was a secondhand cat site I just bookmarked. 

Captain Cat: ??… 
Hmm… Gives one paws for thought…

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

 Previously: Dolphins

Sea Library – Autumn Additions

Just ordered some more great books for the sea library! 

We’re officially into Autumn now and with the sailing season slowing down, I’m stocking up on books for the First Mate’s new study regime. 

I’ve found some excellent sailing ‘travel-writing’ books and some more written by solo round-the-world sailors – just the sort of inspiration the Can Opener needs! 

Lookin’ forward to some good snoozing ahead…


Travel Writing

• The Reluctant Mariner, by Joanna Hackett
• The Cruising Woman’s Advisor: How to Prepare for the Voyaging Life, by Diana Jessie
• Cruising in Seraffyn, by Lin Pardey

Solo Circumnavigation 

• Taking on the World, by Ellen MacArthur
• Against the Flow, by Dee Caffari  
• Around Alone, Emma Richards
• Come Hell or High Water, by Clare Francis 

Book reviews coming soon!

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Coming soon: 

Book review of The Reluctant Mariner
Book review of The Cruising Woman’s Advisor: How to Prepare for the Voyaging Life
Book review of Cruising in Seraffyn  
Book review of Taking on the World
Book review of Against the Flow
Book review of Around Alone
Book review of Come Hell or High Water

What’s On The First Mate’s Nightstand?

What’s On The First Mate’s Nightstand these days?

Books, books and more books to read…

The Can Opener has been toiling away at his studies and we are pleased with his progress. 

Here are the books piled sky high on his night table that are in various stages of being read:

• La Longue Route, by Bernard Moitessier
• Cruising Under Sail, by Eric Hiscock
• Mettre Les Voiles, by Antoine
• Coastal and Offshore Navigation, by Tom Cunliffe
• Ocean Sailing, by Tom Cunliffe
• The Racing Rules of Sailing, by Paul Elvestrom
• Offshore Sailing, by Seifert & Spurr
• Don Casey’s Sailboat Maintenance Manual, by Casey & Compton
• Yachtsman’s Emergency Handbook, by Hollander & Mertes
• The Voyager’s Handbook, by Beth Leonard
• The Seaworthy Offshore Boat, by John Vigor

Any other recommendations for good books for the Can Opener to read?

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Cruising Texts
Previously: A Big Bunch of Book Reviews

Ocean Passage Making

Ocean Passage Making presentation at the Red Tabby

Can’t go under it. Can’t go over it. Can’t go around… 

The First Mate and I tripped lightly last week down to the Red Tabby, eyes aglow, to listen to a presentation chock full of ocean crossing tips. Here are the…

…Highlights


Charts 
You need to have:

• tons of paper charts for the region you are cruising (for an around-the-world race you need an amazing 380 (approx) paper charts on board – which is legally required)
• electronic copies of same
• Broadcast Schedules of the Weather Forecast
• Nautical Almanac – 1 per region
• Pilots 

It costs 1000s £/$ to get all this, so look for as much as possible online – where you can often download it free (and make both paper copies and electronic copies). More and more stuff offered free online every day.

Self-Sufficiency

• On a good boat:
• everything has a back up
• everything is redundant
• eg. backup halyards – alternate tension between 2 halyards every 12 hours to reduce strain.

• Don’t rely on water-makers or refrigerators.
• Plan not to rely on them – treat them as an added bonus if you have them and they happen to still work.
• Use baby wipes to keep clean and save water! 

• VHF range is only 25-50 nautical miles max – how will you get info/data, communication outside this range? Make sure you already have what you need before you go.

Preventing breakdowns – Attention to detail

• Constantly do checks – prevention is better than cure.
• Go through scenarios and plan for emergencies 
• what if the rudder breaks? 
• what if a shroud snaps?…
• Build tools and spares inventory with this in mind.
• Prevent chafe on metal, sails and lines before it happens.
• There’s lots of chafe on trade wind routes!
  
• Get rid of metal to metal connections – eg.. use spectra lines to tie on shackles to boom.
• eg. Use cable ties or seizing wire to secure shackle pins.

Choosing Crew

• Are they medically fit? Do they get seasick?
• Know and confirm the experience and skill level of your crew in detail.
• Can you rely on them to keep a proper lookout?
• Are they reliable?
• Do they have a long attention span?
• Reliability is more important than navigational ability.
• It’s helpful to choose crew with useful, different backgrounds eg medical, mechanical, communications experts…

How will a medical emergency be handled? 

Effective helicopter range is 200 miles offshore – this leaves a big gap in the middle of the ocean where you have to handle medical emergencies on your own.

• Get pre-passage medical training – first aid, wilderness first aid, wilderness dental, pet aid, survival training…
• Choose crew with medical backgrounds, as above.

Clearly these lecture tips do not cover everything you need to know for an ocean passage. But they’re good points to think about. It was an evening well spent.

Have you completed an ocean passage? What are some highlights and tips that you recommend?

Are you preparing for an ocean passage? What other topics are you researching?

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener) 

Cruising Lectures
Previously: Cruising in Oceania

Maiden Voyage – Reviewed

links below at bottom of post

Book the Captain just finished snoozing on: Maiden Voyage

Just finished Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi. It describes her solo circumnavigation starting at age 18 from New York in 1985 and finishing 2 years later in 1987.

Zipped through the whole book in less than a day. Obviously a gripping tale.


The stuff I loved

• She did it at 18 years old – holy shiny binnacles, Batman!
• She did it on a boat that was only 26 feet long!
• At the time, she was the youngest person ever to circumnavigate (minus 80 km during which she had a friend on board) 
• She seemed like a cat lover – she took along 2 cats!
• I got through the whole thing in less than a day – I was riveted.

Concerns
She left on an intended circumnavigation: 

• with little sailing experience
• without knowing how to anchor, navigate or fix an engine
• without fixing simple factory defects in her boat that could easily have been found during shakedown voyages*

and most disturbingly…

• en route, she gave away one of her cats!!

Yikes! Who could do that?? 

I found it fascinating, interesting, insightful, and was totally hooked… until the unforgivable moment of madness at the end of the book when she gave away one of her cats!!!!!!! 

After that, I did not have the strength to carry on and assigned it to the Can Opener.

Any other books you would recommend for cruising? I am researching for the next round of additions to our sea library…

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

* Wikipedia, Tania Aebi

Other Book Reviews

Next: 20 Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere – Book Review

Previously: Self-Sufficient Cruiser – Book Review

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More Additions to the Sea Library

  
Just ordered some more great books for the sea library! Lookin’ forward to some more good snoozing ahead…

• The Voyager’s Handbook: The Essential Guide to Bluewater Cruising, by Beth A. Leonard 
• La longue route, by Bernard Moitessier 
• Maiden Voyage, by T. Aebi 
• The Rules in Practice 2009-2012, by Bryan Willis

Book reviews coming soon! 

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Coming soon:

Book review of The Voyager’s Handbook
Book review of La longue route   

Book review of Maiden Voyage

Book review of The Rules in Practice 2009-2012 

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