It’s 8:45 pm, my phone’s alarm goes off. I wake up to a strange place unaware of why I set the alarm to this exact time. I start asking myself, did I set the alarm to wake up and start studying because I’m writing an exam tomorrow ? Or do I have a meeting with someone soon ? Oh yeah ! I remember now. I have a training session at 9:30pm at the swimming pool for my Ironman race. I need to get ready. I shut my eyes briefly since that’s my routine after switching the alarm off. Suddenly, I hear a strong sound from the window Baaam! Like when cops break down the door of a criminal’s house. What’s going on ? Oh my God the room is moving ! I dash to the window checking what’s happening – and see total darkness. Suddenly, that same sound hits the window – it’s a wave! That’s when I realize I’m in the middle of the Atlantic on a sailing vessel – 3000km from the start in South Africa and 2000km to the closest continent – it was my turn for watch duty and to steer the boat.
We have an systematic routine for these watches, 4hours during the day and 3hours at night, a total of 7 hours a day at night night the helm, checking on the navigational chart, paying attention to all the huge container ships, noting wind direction, checking sails, the boat’s direction, depth… a huge responsibility, not only for the boat, but also for the crew who are all asleep – with full trust for the person keep them from harms way until the end of their shift.
I dressed properly for a cold and wet night – usually cotton pants, plus some warm socks -all topped with hiking pants (I call it my “war time” outfit because I don’t care if they get ripped or dirty.) These pants saved my butt on last trip in Turkey during winter too. ( A full length documentary about that adventure is coming soon)
This outfit is topped off with T-shirt, a warm jersey and finally a down jacket. If needed, I add another wind proof jacket on top of all that. I feel like a Spartacus preparing for war! It was the third day of strong winds, the sea was full of huge swells which were constantly breaking. To add to this adventure, the autopilot failed to steer properly in these heavy conditions. We switched to manually steering the vessel- fighting those wind and swells which were reaching 33knots ( 60km/h)
I approached the helm 5 min before 9pm, it’s our hand over protocol to brief the next shift with all essential information regarding the wind, the waves, the directions, weather conditions in the coming hours, what to do in case … we talk for a bit than that person goes off duty and to rest. Everything now is under my responsibility and under my control, everyone now is counting on Spartacus.
Once I took the helm with my hands, I feel the wind is trying to veer the boat to turn to left, while the waves are pushing it to the right, and I’m there wrestling to control these two forces of nature- trying to maintain the boat on an even keel, at 320’ degrees on my compass. Total darkness, all I hear is a strong wind blowing, and big swells lifting the boat to the heavens above, then quickly returning to the deep ocean. I often felt, while at the helm, that I was surfing- back home in El Jadida’s beautiful surf, until my eyes glimpse on the chart plotter, and I quickly realize that I’m in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. However, if I now get tired, there’s no option to get out of the water The only option is the final destination, in 70 days.
In front of me there are 3 screens, on the left there’s the chart plotter that shows me the speed of the boat, wind speed, boat’s location coordinates 17’47.559 S 002’42.053 W , as well as the direction of the boat and the route traveled.
On the middle screen, by far the most important one – demanding my full attention, is dedicated to the wind, the first love of the boat and her worst enemy in some situations. This screen shows the wind direction, the wind speed and also the depth.
On the right is the third screen, my best friend, the Autopilot, who is always there in happy moments, but when it’s bad, he leaves you alone to the fate Mother Nature. This screen, shows the compass and the angle direction of the helm. There are three important buttons to tell the autopilot what to do, one is to set it on the compass direction, another set to the wind angle and the third to steer the vessel manually.
These screens receive my full attention on this moonlit night, at the point I felt I’m locked in a dark room playing a computer game, a game when I have to steer the helm right or left to keep the wind direction on 150 degrees to my left. If I don’t succeed to keep it for 3 hours we will all and it will be a game over. This is quite an awesome responsibility- which must be taken seriously.
It’s been 2 hours that I’m wrestling the waves, suddenly I felt mother nature calling – I had to pee, but unlike in a car when I can stop and find the nearest tree, I have to remain at the helm until someone wakes up, and I didn’t want to wake up anyone asking assistance to steer for me for a minute. At that moment, I was thinking what Spartacus did when Mother Nature called in the middle of a sword fight?
As I’m thinking reviewing my options, the dark room where I’m playing my computer game in front of three screens experienced lightning, -.every couple of minutes there come a big flash for less than a second lighting the environment around me, I realize I’m not in a computer’s game room, I’m in a big sea with huge standing waves.
Frightfully, I was experiencing the power of the nature, it was perhaps better with total darkness when I could only see the 3 screens front of me, but when the lightning started, the reality hit, and I found myself looking at the fourth screen. The lightning seemed quite distant at first, but it started getting closer as time went on -.until it started lightning very close to the boat. I was now in a big storm which I used to see only on TV documentaries, Lightning, thunderstorms and the rains pours like it’s coming straight from a bucket, Lilith, our boat, still going up and down in the swells reminded me of my days camping in the desert where there’s not even a bird sound.
While all this going on, I started thinking about the person who designed this boat. Did he ever think she’s going to be in these heavy weather conditions crossing an ocean, or did he design her for a nice cruise on a beautiful sunny day. I stopped myself from thinking negatively, I said to myself, not the right time. At the end I had nothing to do but to trust the designer.
The last 10 minutes of my three hour shift I felt like I’m in the IRONMAN race with only 10 minutes remaining-,it sounds very easy, but not after 5 hours of swimming, cycling and running, it felt like like I was running with 100kg of iron on my shoulders and I had no energy left. Probably that’s why they call it IRONMAN.
This was a similar situation on the boat, i was tired of steering, felt sleepy. I couldn’t understand anymore if I should turn left or right to keep the wind on 150 degrees on port side but I had to persevere to the finish line – to pass the keys to the next person on watch.