Sargassum-less Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is the only sea in the world not bounded by any landmass. It lives nestled inside the North Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda.

The Sargasso Sea is a magical place, where the waters salinity is higher and a special type of floating seaweed originates. Sargassum is an entire world and habitat to tiny sea creatures that float along the ocean in these little rafts of life.

I had read that deep in the Sargasso, the sargassum would become thick and appear as a golden field in the middle of the ocean! The thought of waking up for my watch and stepping outside into the cockpit and seeing a golden meadow fascinated my mind!

As we sailed by Bermuda, I grew excited for the sargassum to become thicker! We would see small streaks of sargassum stretching across the ocean, which made me think we might be getting closer, but we were not.

We crossed the Sargasso Sea and never saw any thick patches. We actually saw more sargassum off the coast of Florida! Alas, we sailed on and exited the Sargasso without getting to experience the magical meadow that floats around in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Peace with the Ocean

When out at sea, it is imperative to forget all the typical drives of shore-based land. Schedules, times, dates, they all whither away as you are lulled into the peacefulness of the ocean.

When coastal hopping, even offshore, we used to have our navigation equipment on. We had a route plotted and knew a speed we needed to maintain in order to arrive at the correct tide. We were sailing from one port to another and in a rush to make the passage as quick as possible.

All that changed when we left to cross the Atlantic Ocean. We left the United States from the Lake Worth Inlet and pointed the bow of the boat due East. As soon as the water depth increased to 60 feet, we figured that our chances of bumping into a shoal were nil, so we turned off all of our navigational equipment.

It felt so weird to turn off the chart plotter, a screen that was always illuminated is now dark and blank. For the past three thousand miles, that screen has told us where we are, where we are going, how fast we are moving, our coordinates, and our battery voltage. Now it stands there quietly as a ghost that it once was.

Why turn it off you may be wondering? Simple, the unit draws a lot of electricity, and that power could be better used to run the fridge or power our navigational lights.

It's not that we are floating around aimlessly in the ocean with no clue where we are. Instead, we use other methods of determining these facts. For instance, our location is found at local apparent noon, when the sun is directly overhead and we can sight it with the sextant. I plot our sighting position and compare it to the GPS readout on our radio. This lets me know how far we have traveled from noon to noon, as well as tests my skill with the sextant.

For direction, we have the compass. For our course, we know we want to move east, so we simply aim the bow at good weather that is located east of us. As we cross the ocean, the weather will change and we will alter course to keep in the good graces of the weather raging around us.

While it is nice to know how fast you are going and if a sail change or trim improved your speed, but the truth is, it doesn't really matter. Simply trim so that the bubbles go past your boat as quickly as possible and then sit back to relax. At the next noon sighting, you will know what your distance made good was that day and how fast your average speed was. 

Tracking a Storm

When coastal cruising, storms are easy to track thanks to a plethora of options presented to you. On the technological side, you can pull up radar apps that will show you the storms and all the information about them. For a more low tech method, you can look at the clouds and their relationship to the landmarks beneath them. Watching the clouds move over buildings or mountains will let you see which way the storm is moving and advise you on the steps you need to take.

If the storm is moving away from you, just keep an eye on it and make sure that it continues to leave you alone. If the storm is stationary, continue to watch it and preferably sail away from it. If the storm is coming at you, either seek a safe harbor or reef down in preparation for the storm.

Now, all of these options disappear on the ocean. There is no "weather app" or internet to display information on your palm sized super computer. There are no landmarks to watch the clouds movements, making tracking a storm seem almost like black magic!

Thankfully, there is something on the open ocean that you can use to track a storm, something better than a wave or a sea bird, your compass. You want to pick a defining feature in the storm, such as the edge of the rain curtain, or the edge of the shelf cloud, or the towering spire that will become a squall cloud. Once you have a "cloud feature" identified, figure out its bearing to you on the compass and keep tabs on it. Over time, it should change bearings to you, which would indicate that it is moving either left or right of you. If it is not changing in bearing to you, it could either be stationary or moving closer to you. This is only distinguishable by seeing if the clouds look closer to you than they did before.

For example: a nasty squall cloud is on your port side. The clouds left edge is at 180 and the clouds right edge is at 210 on the compass. Five minutes later, the left edge is at 190 and the ridge edge is at 220. A little while later, its from 200 to 230. This means that the squall is moving laterally and away from you. Since you have a bearing to it and a heading for the storm, you can easily plot a route that will take you around the storm and avoid dealing with those conditions while out in the open ocean.

While it may seem frightening to not be able to hide from a storm on the ocean, it's really not that bad! You have an uninterrupted view of the horizon in all directions, and storm clouds are big and tall. You will see them hundreds of miles away, allowing you to track them and figure out where to sail to avoid dealing with them. Since you are on the open ocean, there is no reef, pass, or channel that is restricting your direction and point of sail. Getting off course for a few minutes is inconsequential as it is very easy to get back on course once the system has passed.

Ocean sailing may seem daunting, but in reality it is very relaxing and easy. All you have to do is keep an eye on the weather around you and plan accordingly.

Ocean Crossing and Chafe

Ocean sailing differs greatly from coastal cruising. In a coastal situation, you can afford to be risky. You can fly too much sail, heel over too far, maybe even push the envelope of what the yacht is capable of. If something breaks, the penalty is rather costly and small, as a repair facility is always at hand. Should your mast break, a sail tear, or a sheet part, the result is the same: the boat broke and will be fixed promptly at a nearby facility.

In the ocean, there is no nearby facility. If something on the boat breaks, you are left to your own devices to repair it. Carrying too much sail can risk tearing the sails with no sail loft for a thousand miles and no way of getting your yacht to shore! Setting the sails against the rigging will also cause them to chafe, and that will lead to a gash forming in the sail cloth.

On a deep broad reach or run, you may be tempted to ease the main all the way out and let it drape against the rigging, but each wave and puff of wind will cause the sail to shimmy up and down on the stay, sawing through the cloth.

Instead of trimming the sails to perfection, it is more important to trim the sails to longevity. Keep them set in a way that they do not contact any part of the boat or rigging. This will keep them from chafing and will almost guarantee that your sails will make it across the ocean and be ready to carry you back home when the time comes.

This might not be the fastest way, nor the most efficient, but it certainly is the safest and most frugal way to trim your sails.

Cheap Autopilot Trick

Autopilot is an incredible investment for a long distance cruiser. The value of being able to let a machine guide your course is invaluable when it allows you to be free from the helm while on watch. Electronic or wind powered autopilots have one major flaw in their design: cost. Both types of units will cost several thousand dollars and require a lengthy installation process.

That being said, there is a cheaper alternative to autopilot: sail balance.

We have both, electronic and wind powered autopilots, and we still use this simple trick. When going to windward, simply lock the helm straight and trim the sails for a balanced close reach. The yacht will not be able to turn further into the wind as the sails will luff and stall, and if it falls off, the sails will bring it back up into the wind.

This trick will allow you to sail as fast and as close to the wind as possible without the cost or complexity of an autopilot system.

To recap, all you need to do is lock the helm straight, then trim your sails for close reach and be sure they are balanced. The yacht will then turn up into the wind and sail along on the most windward course that it can as quickly as it can.

Even with two types of autopilot systems, we still do this trick when beating to windward as it is the easiest to set and allows us to relax in the helm as the sails do all the work.