Lord of the Flies

Flies are a frequent problem on the boat. It's not because we are messy or because we have a composting toilet (no bugs come out of there!) but because we sail near places that are riddled with flies.

We will be sailing along when a swarm of flies will descend upon us! These flies seem to be very hungry because they will begin biting us and Morty. Maddie and I are not fans of pesticides, due to their toxicity, and conventional fly swatters don't seem to put a dent in the number of flies buzzing about us.

We have seriously thought about breaking down and using chemical pest control devices (bug sprays), but they are very toxic to parrots and birds. Being how we have Sammy (our parrot) on board with us, bug sprays are never going to be an option.

In our search for a better alternative, we stumbled upon fly paper; you know, the stuff you see in cartoons that gets stuck on the characters face and arms. These fly paper coils contain no pesticides or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), they are simply sticky glue on paper and work wonderfully!

Fly paper is not as immediately gratifying as bug spray though, it does not work instantly and it does not attract the flies to it. The fly needs to buzz around and land on the paper for them to get stuck. When you first hang up the paper, it seems that the flies will land on everything but the paper! Over time though, the bugs will land on it and their numbers will reduce.

In order to get more flies to land on the fly paper, you need to make the fly paper more appealing. If you sit back and watch the flies behavior, you will notice that they only land on things that do not move around in the wind. If you have a steady lifeline or back rest, they will walk all over it; but your flapping canvas will not get much fly traffic. 

Following the same logic, if you hang your flypaper in the middle of the cockpit where it will flap around all the flies as the wind makes it dance, not a single fly will land on it. While this may seem like the best place to put the fly paper due to the high concentration of flies, its constant motion will render it worthless. Hanging it inside the cabin where it will stay still will prove much more effective. 

We set up the fly paper one afternoon after we were bombarded with flies and by morning the paper was covered in the annoying insects while the air was clear of any nuisance. If you need immediate bug relief until the fly paper can decimate the numbers of buzzing buggers, try wearing long sleeves and long pants. Keeping the amount of exposed skin to a minimum will provide the insects that much less skin to attack. Rubbing OFF! on your hands and feet can help keep them protected as well. 

With the fly problem under control, we are able to cruise in much more comfort! 

Cleaning Your Bottom

After a week, soft growth will form a thin layer of slime that will drastically reduce your speed and efficiency through the water. Bottom paint can help retard the speed at which this growth occurs, but it will still happen and it will still slow you down. 

Modern day commercially acceptable ways to clean your hull include short hauls, where you power wash the bottom, and hiring a diver who scrapes your hull in the water.  

Both of these options are rather expensive after a while, which has led people in high tidal ranges to explore alternative options. One such favorite is to take the boat into shallow water with a leg tied to it. As the tide goes out, the leg keeps your boat from tipping over as it rests on its keel and rudder. With the tide out, you are able to scrape and scrub the hull clean. I have even seen people paint their hull before the tide comes back in! 

In Maryland, our tide is much less drastic with a range of 1 to 3 feet. This means that my 6 foot keel will not be coming out of the water by natural means any time soon. 

Since the cost of short hauls adds up over time, I have experimented with other methods to clean my hull as it floats in the water.  

My favorite, and most reliable method is to use a 12 inch wide wallpaper scraper to clean the bottom. It covers a lot of bottom on each scrape makes quick work of the job. The problem is the water in the bay is extremely murkyat times and I can't see where I am or where the surface is. This makes free diving under the hull less than desirable.  

I then tried lashing the wallpaper scraper to a long boat hook. This worked well for the sides of the keel and hull, but was impossible to clean the turn off the bilge! No matter how I positioned the pole, I simply could not reach into that concavity.  I also feared dropping the boat hook or having the scraper slip off the end of the pole. They were well tied, but they were not permanently connected. 

This led to my latest and favorite method, the hoe. The hoe has a blunt blade that turns ninety degrees with the relation to handle. This angulation places the blade perpendicular to the hull, letting you scrape the hull and reach the turn of the bilge all from the surface of the water. 

From the comfort and dryness of the dinghy, the blade is set against the hull and guided by the top of my foot. I push the hoe as deep as I can and then draw up with force. The up stroke is where the cleaning occurs! I like to start deep and work my way towards the surface, continually cleaning and scraping until I don't see any more muck floating off in the water. At this point, I move a few inches over and begin the process over again. 

This may seem time consuming, but it's not that bad. In around 20 minutes, I was able to clean from keel to water line on our 45 foot sailboat (with a 32 foot waterline, we have 13 feet of overhangs). 

Later that day, I dove in with a mask and snorkel to clean the keel and rudder. The only differences were I was not dry and I didn't use my feet to guide the hoe. Instead, I would float at the waterline and extend the hoe as far as I could. When I felt the bottom of the keel, I knew I was in position and began cleaning the sides of the keel.  

I know I did a poor job on the keel and rudder, mainly due to visibility issues. The water was so murky that visibility was limited to 1 foot. I have no idea how the keel looked before or after the cleaning, but I know some improvement occurred.  

The reason I didn't dive under the keel with a wallpaper scraper was I could feel barnacles with the hoe near the bottom of the keel. The last thing I wanted was to puncture myself on an unseen spear of a shell in filthy water. If we were in clear waters of the Caribbean, diving under would be the ideal method of cleaning growth off of the bottom of the keel. Dangers under the hull could be located and avoided as the cleaning process takes place.  

The final test came when we set sail the next day. On our sail to this creek with a dirty bottom, we were running with 15kn of wind apparent at times while only moving 4kn. Now that the bottom is "cleaner" we were able to ghost along at 3-4kn in 5-10kn of wind on a run as well. Later in the trip, we were broad reaching at 6.5 knots during stronger winds. 

While we had minimal hard growth, the soft growth adds a lot of drag to the hull, slowing it's motion through the water.  

Morty certainly approved of the cleaner bottom as it meant we got to our destinations quicker and his walks came sooner!

Life Cycle of a Boat

They say that every boat ever made wI'll sink and our job is to prolong the inevitable. This boat reached the end rather quickly!

At 6:30am, this boat was floating. By 8:30am, it was on the bottom! 

I do not know the cause of this vessels sinking, but this should serve as a reminder to check all the holes in your boat!  

I suspect this may have been due to a sea cock issue. If the hose slips off the sea cock, water will pour into the hull at an alarming rate! Boats with large motors will have massive through hulls to supply the enormous flow of water required to cool them.  

Whenever we leave our boat for a period of time, we close all the sea cocks. I also inspect the hoses and hose clamps regularly, replacing them at the first sign of deterioration. 

When a boat is holed, the inevitable happens quickly!  

Danger of a Bulbous Bow

I have seen small dinghies sailing incredibly close to anchored cargo ships and I fear that they don't understand the dangers they are facing. While it is never a good idea to sail right up next to a massive ship because items can fall off the deck and strike your tiny boat! Even worse are the dinghies that sail between the bow and anchor chain.

Right under the water lies the cargo ship's bulbous bow! These protrusions vary in size and length, some coming way forward of the waterline. 

The winds around the bow are quite squirrely, adding complexity to a cramped area with little sea way. Adding to the confusing winds is the fact that your keel and rudder could strike the top of the submerged bulbous bow, causing damage to your boat and confusion to the crew.

Not all bulbous bows are the same, some are longer, some are shorter, but they all can lurk just below the water ahead of the ship! 

While I do not recommend sailing close to a cargo ship, there are some clues as to how extensive the bulbous bow could be. 

The sharper the bow, the longer the bulbous bow could be.
The blunter the bow, the shorter the bulbous bow could be.
The bulbous bow tends to be as far forward as the tip of the bow of the ship.

While you don't want to sail too closely to a ship (especially one that is moving), if you do find yourself right on the bow of a ship and feel a thud before you come in contact with his bulbous bow! 

Man Overboard Recovery

Life Sling is considered to be the best Man-Over-Board recovery system on the market, and for good reason. The old standard is a Type IV throw-able device, typically a cushion, horseshoe, or life ring. These devices were thrown in the direction of the victim so that they can stay afloat as the boat came back to pick them up. Keeping the victim afloat longer is wonderful, but how do you get them back to the boat?

Life Sling solves this problem by way of a tether. Inside the Life Sling pouch is a floating horseshoe attached to a very long polypropylene line that ends in a webbing strap which is tied to a secure point on the boat (make sure you always keep the webbing tied to a secure point, because in the heat of the moment you might forget to tie the line and defeat the benefits of a Life Sling). Polypropylene floats, which helps you identify where the line is as well as minimizing the risk of any prop fouling issues during the recovery.

The instructions on Life Sling are very simple:

1. Throw the Life Sling into the water
2. Circle around the victim
3. Pull the victim back into the boat

• If the victim is unconscious, use a lifting system to raise them into the boat

These instructions are very good, but not very specific. This works in the marine market where each and every boat is different, and no set of instructions would work on every boat. Maddie and I decided to test out how we would recover a helpless victim on our sailboat, where winches, lines, and spars are available at our disposal. We certainly learned some valuable lessons during the recovery process!

We tried out the system in a quiet creek, where the water was still and there was no wind present; very different from the chaotic environment of a storm where a crew member got washed overboard and needs to be recovered, but the principles are the same. What is important to note is that we were anchored, had no sails up, and everyone was happy and healthy. It still took us 10 to 15 minutes to recover one person, so we feel that this process might take closer to an hour if we were in very poor weather conditions. Due to the trouble and difficulty of the recovery method, we both feel that the most important part of MOB recovery is to avoid the MOB situation in the first place! Always wear a tether and clip in when on deck in rough conditions and keep it clipped in at all times. Also, keep good footing and always use handholds as needed. If you can stay on the deck, you will be much better off. If I were to fall off the deck, I would be dragged along next to the boat by my tether connected to the jackline. There would be no need to locate my floating body in the distance as I would still be attached to the boat!

---

In our test, we were anchored and simply took the Life Sling far from the boat via stand-up paddle board. The victim swam out to the Life Sling and got inside the horseshoe. We did not practice the boat maneuvers to get the Life Sling to the person as both Maddie and I feel we are capable of steering the boat towards the victim. Our plan is to circle around the victim to get the Life Sling to them, then heave to for the recovery. We both agree that we can manage the boat alone to get in position to recover the floating person, but we wanted to practice the actual hoisting and recovering of the person. This is how it proceeded.

---

Our plan to hoist the person out of the water is to use the boom and winches to raise them above the lifelines, swing them over the cockpit, and lower them to safety.

• The canopy needs to be collapsed forward
• A snatchblock attached to the end of the boom with lifesling line run through it
• A preventer line tied to the end of the boom and run forward
• Mainsheet eased to allow the boom to swing over the water while preventer is tightened.
• Topping lift adjusted to raise end of boom high up

This setup will hold the boom securely over the side of the boat without risk of the boom swinging back to the other side (which would smack the person into the side of the hull). The topping lift is adjusted to get the end of the boom very high into the air so that the hanging person will clear the lifelines with their feet as they hang fully raised.

The cockpit awning needs to be removed or tipped forward to allow the person to fall into the cockpit easily. If the canopy were in place, you risk bending the frame and injuring the person when they smash into it. By collapsing it, the risk of injury and damage is greatly reduced. 

The mainsheet pulls the boom over the cockpit while the preventer keeps it out over the water. The yellow polypropylene line is led from the Life Sling, to the snatch block at the end of the boom, to a turning block on the toe rail, to the winch. This setup allows us to use the winch as a lifting mechanism to raise the person into the boat with proper fair leads, minimizing harm to the equipment on board while keeping the recovery process very controlled and dependable. 

Maddie got herself into position, waiting in the water inside the Life Sling as I began to haul her closer to the boat.

Once under the boom, I was no longer able to pull her in by hand. I needed to put the yellow line on a large winch. In our setup, we used the primary winch to raise her up into the air.

The Life Sling horseshoe does work well to hold the person in its sling. Maddie hung completely limp and felt very secure inside the sling. The only problem is the sling crushes down on your ribs making it very difficult to breathe. I would hate to be in duress while hanging in this position for a long time during a recovery!

I got Maddie raised high above the lifelines, now we are ready to swing her into the cockpit.

To swing her over the cockpit, the preventer needs to be eased while the mainsheet brought in. Once she is over the cockpit, I slowly lower her into the cockpit in a controlled manner. 

Once Maddie was back on board, I hopped into the water to let Maddie recover me. She was able to winch my heavy body into the air and bring me into the boat in a very controlled manner. I weigh almost 200 pounds and there is no way she could bodily pull me into the boat. With use of the winch, she was able to raise me out of the water and get me into the cockpit without exerting herself too much. I had to take some of the weight off my chest by putting my feet on the rubrail as the sling was crushing my ribs making it very hard to breathe. 

---

We both agreed that this is a very tedious and lengthy process to recover a person. It would be much quicker to have them climb into the dinghy or climb up the rope boarding ladder instead of rigging this system to winch them out of the water. 

We also wondered how we would get the unconscious person into the sling! We couldn't come up with any smart ideas. If you have any tricks to get an unconscious person out of the water, let me know in the comments section down below! Our best idea is to jump in and put them in the sling, then climb back on board and raise them out. This is a moronic idea because you risk being lost as well since no one is on the boat.

In the end, we feel that the best protocol is to not fall overboard in the first place. If someone did fall in and we simply were not able to get them back on board, the Life Sling does work, and will always be a last option to recover a man over board.

After this exercise, our plan is to deploy the Life Sling to get them back to the boat, and then have them either climb into the dinghy or climb up the rope ladder. We will only use the Life Sling as a hoisting method as a very last resort option due to the complexity in rigging it and time required to raise the person out of the seas.

I still feel that a Life Sling is much better than a regular Type IV throwable, but I don't think it's the easy magic bullet to get someone out of the water. It is still necessary to have other, easier to use, equipment on hand to get a conscious person out of the water and back into the safety of the boat; such as boarding ladders.