Scott’s Log – July 30th – somewhere out in Baffin Bay
I woke the crew by firing up the engine at 4:30 AM. There was this perfect weather window that I wanted to take advantage of that required an early start. As we navigated the dense fog out of our anchorage it felt like this trip might just feel longer than the miles to go indicated. But the fog lifted and as Jon stepped up to the helm chair, and I decided to take a morning nap. As I attempted to fall asleep, I heard Mario call out, “I’m going to get eggs.” He announced to the boat and no one in particular, that he was going on deck and it just so happens on Sarah-Sarah, that we keep a large number of eggs in a cooler on the aft deck. Why did this strike me so hard? Why did I sit bolt upright? Well, imagine the possible alternative of being woken from a nap to the shouts of crew members yelling “Where is Mario? Did he fall overboard?” To the Captain of any ship, I imagine there could be no worse words and no worse feeling.
There are a few things we do on board to prevent that from happening. Mario, in fact, among his many duties, is our Chief Safety Officer. In this role and his ever-present desire to be helpful, Mario secured a personal AIS/EPIRB from ACR for each crew member and attached them to everyone’s life jacket. If you are unfortunate enough to fall off the boat, the life jacket will auto inflate, the personal AIS/EPIRB will deploy, and it will alarm on all the ship’s instruments marking your specific location in the water to facilitate your rapid retrieval. But that won’t work at all if you fall off the boat without your life jacket.
Mario, being an expert in marine safety, taught us that having a rule suggesting you wear your lifejacket all the time, is silly. All the time would suggest that you wear a life jacket sitting in the comfort of the lower deck helm chair or that Mario wear one while he is cooking one of the fabulous meals he has become known for. So what rules are in place? Frankly, the rules are different depending on where we are and the conditions we are in or will be in. Mario is very diligent in asking me, when all crew are present and listening, what the rules will be in the next planned step of our voyage. For example, here in Greenland with 36-degree water temperatures, we wear life jackets 100% of the time when we use the dinghy. In the Caribbean, with water temps in the 80s and the beach a few strokes away we did not wear them. We don’t wear them on the deck of Sarah-Sarah at Anchor. On the calm inland parts of this passage, they were not required on deck during the day when everyone was awake, around, and on deck. However, now that we are offshore and headed across Baffin Bay, they are required 100% of the time anyone steps out on deck. No one is allowed on deck at night, period. And, if you absolutely have to go on deck for any reason, you are required to wake up the next person on watch before you gear up with your life jacket and go out.
For now, those are the rules on the boat, and I am sure we will adapt them as our journey continues. Augmenting the life jacket rule, everyone calls out to the boat, so we know when they are headed up on deck even if it’s just to grab some eggs. So, when I heard Mario call out that he was getting eggs, it just struck me that we really are being safe. Watching Mario, wearing his life jacket, close the cooler which is only 3 feet from the door and return, confirmed it. So now, with peace of mind, I can go back to sleep.
