Yes indeed [the website] was moved to:
http://www.reardon.mobi/Jaratanix/index.html
Perhaps you would like to make this correction.
Kind regards, Jack Reardon
"This web site chronicles the adventures of the Reardon family's life on the ocean wave. From their 8 meter cruiser racer Um'Hambi to the IOR racer Skana then raising their family aboard the three masted schooner Jarata during the 10 years they spent afloat and now the refitting and sailing of the motor sailing Tirhandile Kadenza.
Once started it became apparent that this chronicle will provide occupation for some considerable time to come. We hope you enjoy our site and invite you to return to it at regular intervals to keep abreast of new additions as they are published." {Update: 07/28/10}
There
is nothing new under the sun.
Heroic voyages are the currency of legends
and researchers today readily confirm their validity. In our time man
continues to make successful single handed ocean crossings in craft as
diverse as kayaks, row boats and giant sail powered multi-hulls in this
quest. The one thing that all those who have gone before have in common
is that at some point the conscious decision was made to undertake such
a voyage in the vessel of their choice. So now is this, the decision
that you face, as the Chinese proverb says, "A journey of 1000 Miles
begins with the first step." This is the first step. With the benefit of
the experience gained sailing our first two ocean going yachts and the
clear objective of cruising the oceans sans land base, in short of
making our home on the sea, we chose a vessel that would allow 5 tonne
displacement for each of our crew plus 5 tonne for the ship.
Displacement directly translating in hull volume we concurred with
Thomas Colvin's assessment that this would provide us with adequate
living room. At the outset the crew would be made up of 2 adults and
three preadolescent children. Add to this our desire to be relatively
independent of shore side support and still have a vessel that would
handle well on all points of sail. We understood that the large amount
of canvas required to drive a 30 tonne vessel would have to be broken
down into many small sections if we were to avoid burdening ourselves
with numerous electro/mechanical devices requiring regular maintenance
throughout our travels. Our choice was for a 'traditional' three masted
schooner rig and small diesel auxiliary motor. In our ten years spent
aboard we never had occasion to regret our decision. Indeed, many times
over, we observed the crews of 'modern' plastic yachts with high aspect
rigs as they labored in foreign ports to find spare parts and undertake
repairs that would enable them to put back to sea, while we enjoyed the
pleasure of a leisurely sundowner aboard. When being required by
economic circumstances to undertake charter work for reward we upgraded
our auxiliary power to enable us to meet our guests scheduling needs.
Anyone wishing to go to
sea in a small boat must needs follow the path of such rational
decision-making. Compromises will be made; the important thing is to
recognize their impact on your future cruising ability and most
important of all that in making this decision you have taken upon your
selves the responsibility of providing for your safety at sea. Your
cruising yacht, its design, construction and outfitting is your first
survival consideration. As they say "Shit Happens" so your second line
of defense must be to prepare for the unpleasant and unlikely event that
you have no option but to abandon ship.
This can take the form of:
Our decision has always
been to provide for our own needs in all foreseeable circumstances and
it has stood us in good stead.
Surviving an Emergency at Sea
This can take many forms. We have dealt with those of a medical nature
in Ships Doctor and will confine our remarks here to those relative to
the safety of your vessel and crew. As any ocean sailor will tell you
coastal waters hold for more danger for your ship than that of the open
sea. So to in general do coastal waters offer the higher chance of
assistance from shore, sea and from the air. Generally the mandatory
equipment required to be held in readiness aboard by your home port
authority is more than adequate to meet the needs of such an event. Our
concern is centered on the needs in the open sea and on possibly
deserted shores. Fortunately as we said earlier the open sea poses far
less risk to the sailor of a well-founded cruising vessel. The principal
risks arise from the danger of being run down by commercial shipping,
striking a submerged or semi-submerged obstacle such as a lost cargo
container, sleeping whale, tree trunk, ice berg, etc. The secondary risk
is from the elements, storm, cyclone, hurricane, typhoon and their
attendant high seas.
If you can keep you head when all about you
Are losing theirs and
blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt.
Extract from the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling
The first and most
immediate danger is in abandoning a damaged but well-founded small
vessel for the insecurity of a small inflatable liferaft with limited
resources. A properly designed and built cruising sail boat generally
will not sink quickly if at all. There are many recorded instances where
a yacht has been abandoned, only to be found weeks or months later
either beached ashore or providing a hazard to navigation in some ocean.
Just as lifeboat drill is held on commercial passenger ships so should
you and those aboard be conversant with the stowage and use of your
survival equipment. This extends to being conversant with the
physiological trauma of having to abandon ship in a possibly hostile
ocean. When declining an offer to attend religious service, a
well-meaning elderly lady once asked me, if I did not have any religion.
My answer to her was that I very much doubted that she could find anyone
who had been to sea in a small ship who had no religion.
In the early 1950s,
French surgeon Dr. Alain Bombard became interested in the problems
associated with survival at sea. Despair, he believed, is "a far more
ruthless and efficient killer than any physical factor." Conversely,
the morale of the shipwreck victim is as vital to survival as is the
need for food and water. Analyzing the nutritional composition of
seawater, plankton, and pelagic fish, Bombard determined that as a last
resort, seawater can be drunk in small quantities for short periods,
that plankton is a source of vitamin C, and that potable water - as well
as protein - can be extracted from fish. Taking his experiments outside
the laboratory, he set out on a transatlantic voyage in a rubber raft
fitted with a single sail and named, in honor of his unorthodox methods,
L'H�r�tique.
"After 65 days at sea, Bombard had lost 55 pounds, he
was anemic, and he suffered from a variety of minor ailments from which
he quickly recovered. He suffered from neither dehydration nor scurvy,
the latter having been prevented by his intake of vitamin C in
plankton."
In our case we never feel
secure at sea until we are well clear of the coast and out of the
traditional shipping lanes. On one memorable occasion we spent an
anxious hour or so, of a night watch, avoiding the unwelcome attentions
of a freighter, coming up from astern of us, in the Red Sea. Eventually
despite our best efforts they passed within 50 meters off our port
quarter.
Fishing vessels both coastal and ocean also pose a creditable danger to
the cruising sailor. Intent on their quest to harvest the bounty of the
sea they will act without regard to the accepted rules of navigation or
the stipulated showing of lights.
Survival Equipment
You have your statutory life jackets and raft containing rudimentary
emergency equipment and supplies.
The first thing to recognize is that this equipment is provided on the
premise that your situation will be temporary and of reasonably short
duration. In other words they are there to give immediate relief until such
time as emergency services are at hand to effect rescue. Our concern is
focused on dealing with the possibility of prolonged exposure on the ocean
in a rubber duck.
Our solution was to make our dingy unsinkable and to carry an auxiliary pack
of survival tools secured on deck in a secondary life raft container. Please
contact us if you would like our assistance in designing your own survival
pack within the limits of both your identified needs and budget.
Survival Techniques
By necessity these must be separated into Survival at Sea,
Surviving Landfall and Survival on an Uninhabited Shore.
Survival at Sea
As soon as practical, once the immediate danger posed by hyperthermia
and drowning is passed, it is imperative that a routine is established
that provides regular occupation and responsibility for all. The trauma
of abandoning ship, combined with the uncomfortable motion of a life
raft, will result in
seasickness being suffered by the hardiest sailor. The act of
dispensing a small ration of water a glucose rich boiled sweet or
biscuit to gnaw on will assist in stabilizing the situation. You are
indeed all in the same boat and all have survival as a common goal.
Surviving Landfall
It is in this situation that your dingy and your acquired skill with
it will prove its value. Life rafts are not designed or intended to be
boats. They are extended flotation devices generally provided with
accoutrements to both assist in stabilizing them in a turbulent ocean
and to restrict their movement away from the last know position of your
ship. Your dingy on the other hand is, or should be, designed to carry
you ashore in some safety and you are probably skilled at this from the
experience of landing in many diverse locations while cruising.
Survival on an
Uninhabited Shore
The ocean provides fish, crustaceans,
shellfish, sea urchins and cephalopods (octopuses and squids). All are
delicious and nourishing. In the tropics a variety of plant foods can be
found on the beach. Sometimes a green carpet of Sea Purslane will cover
rocks and sand. It is delicious eaten raw or cooked. It is juicy and
rich in minerals. Fruit trees also abound. In addition to the ones we
commonly know like Mango, Lime and cashew nut, others like Breadfruit,
Sea Grapes, Geiger Tree and Cocoplum flourish. Edible fruits, trees and
plants vary with each region, but the king of all edible plants, the
coconut, is found on almost every island in the tropics. More than just
the universal symbol of tropical paradise, it is the magic tree of life
for it provides all the essentials, water, food and shelter.
Please Read The Website Disclaimer!
Copyright 1986-2012, The Survival & Self-Reliance Studies Institute (SSRsi), All
Rights Reserved
Site conceptualized, designed, created & maintained by MEG Raven
Snail Mail: SSRsi, PO Box 2572 Dillon, CO. 80435-2572