So what of the off-shore trip you ask? Are you ready to cross oceans? Was it exciting?
Boring? Adrenalin filled, how did the two of you do together? Lots of questions
out there as well as kind of banging around in my own head. I have been
thinking about drafting a sort of summary and haven't yet. Been having too much
fun. Things like seeing old friends, visiting our home-away-from-home Oriental, walking around Target gazing at the stuff
we really haven't missed at all (yet strangely drawn by the multi-million $
marketing research woven into the packaging, displays, descriptions telling me
my life will not be full without this item) and enjoying the cool nights as we
poke our way north. I do however owe a great deal of gratitude to those who
helped us stay in the loop. Thanks to Amanda who posted updates and Ian, Anne, Greg
and Gail who all helped with the locations. We appreciate the concerns from
those of you who saw crap weather approaching and were left hanging as to our
whereabouts for a couple days.
For what it's worth I'll give it a
try today. Maybe a bit of commentary on us, and a bit on crossings in general
as we have seen yet another ARC depart on "schedule" with boats and
crews thrown to the weather gods...more there later. Our trip was for the most part just basic
sailing. Most of it was well off the wind, roughly 80% of our wind was from aft
of the beam. A tribute to the time of year and the wind pattern gathered
through history, proffered by the pilot charts, looked at briefly by me before
I fell to the software solution offered by Virtual Passage Planning. Simple way
to plug in your route and get a report of wind direction, change it if it looks
tough and try again. All based on the historical averages of course but it is
almost the best avaialble when off shore for longer than a 2-4 day forecast. There are other things in the weather mix,
but more there later.
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| The Obligatory Sunset Photo |
The good ship Celebration did
just what she was designed to do; sail smooth with her narrow beam, true to the
course with her full keel, take care of us with her blue-water construction and
run fast (not like a racer of course) with her supersized sail plan. Even with
most of our run well off wind we rarely had the full sails in the air. We, and
she, prefer to have the vessel upright and even slightly underpowered on long
crossings to enjoy what comfort and leisure can be splitting a 24 hour watch
schedule just two ways. More so at night as we never go into darkness with a
full main and often carry a double reef just so we won't have to reduce sail at
night. How can you stand to do that my racer friends ask? Easy when the crew is
but two and both must be well rested just in case the unexpected would occur.
Besides, we do this for fun, as we both left work to make this extended
journey. Stressing gear, me, crew, breaking equipment, tearing sails makes it
work. Even so we did have a bit of sail repair underway.
The stationary front we
encountered midway between the Caribbean and the US was our "big"
engagement. My watch, I knew it was there and we'd been approaching it for a
few days had seen the lightning the prior night so no surprises. Right. I allowed
the wind vane to steer us down the face of it on a reach until we were abreast of an
area where the wind "seemed" lighter and I was sure I could see well
into the weather. Confident this was a more gentle area than the rest I rolled
up and in. In minutes I was aware of my poor judgment. With a small part of the
working jib flying but only one reef in the main we were grossly overpowered.
No more chance of a quick cut through the front we ran off doing 10 knots and
our old worn out underreporting wind meter showing 30. Short lived but a
little stitching was required afterward. Like always there was a dead calm after
the storm so we putted along under power with the jib and the Kenmore (sewing
machine) on the foredeck putting a bit of thread back in the line channel at
the sail foot. Maybe a bit of Sunbrella re-stitched too but who needs to count.
We consoled ourselves with the fact that the blow didn't cause the damage, but
the accumulation of Caribbean sun and wind did, today’s blow just moved it up on
the repair/maintenance list.
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The Route as Planned. Later Turned into a Large
Zig/Zag North, Even into Florida, Finally to Beaufort |
In all other aspects the days were
quite slow. Preparing food, eating, doing basic chores around the vessel,
sending e-mails, and getting weather faxes/files really took up some time. Then
reading. The wind vane Rejse steered, and navigation is easy when off-shore and
heading in a general direction. In fact the planned course had but two turns
between the end of St Thomas and Beaufort Inlet. Way easier than coastal
cruising.
By the time of our last (after
Beryl) leg we had a lot more figured out despite the numbers of off shore miles
under our belt already. We followed Beryl up the coast from Florida to North
Carolina as it was pushed out to sea by a significant front. We were of course
not fast enough to stay ahead of the front. As it overtook us the wind was our
wind, headed our way pressing us ahead. But the squall lines leading well, were
squall lines, stronger than the gradient wind and with thunderstorms, driving
rain. The first approached, we set sails accordingly and sat in the cockpit
waiting for the excitement. The wind picked up 35-40 knots, the auto-helm
steered, the rain rained, and Celebration headed on her course without a blink
or waiver. Lynn and I looking at each other sitting in our full foul weather gear;
pelted by the driven rain and smiled, “no problem” we said and broke into our
regular night watch schedule. Both dealt with squall lines through the night
and neither off-watch had to be awakened to help.
What did we learn: We still
don't know if we want to cross oceans but are confident we can cross oceans,
and by ourselves if we opt not to take extra crew. Two people can easily handle
a well found vessel if she is not pressed. The self steering must be functional
and capable of handling weather when small crewed. Wind steering added to our
comfort and speed as it adjusted to minor directional changes, even in light
downwind conditions, backup is the electronic auto-helm. SSB is important to us
if not for the weather and mail, hearing and talking to friends on the cruiser
nets was a nice link back to the
continent, more so as the days went on. Schedules are bad. Lastly weather
patterns must be given grave consideration.
Weather patterns and schedule
lead me back to the start, sailing crossings on schedule. Unfortunately as I
write this at least one boat sits in the Azores doing repairs after departing
on schedule with the ARC Europe. Just like two recent Caribbean 1500's the show
went off per the booking, this case while weather patterns created a high
probability of storms impacting the North Atlantic. Meanwhile, we have friends
underway right now to Europe, one from the Caribbean, and one from the US both
of whom heeded this forecast and departed after the patterns changed. We too
heeded the patterns by planning our route closer to options than we would
otherwise have done and in the end took the option when prediction models
indicated tropical storms. My point is just this; being part of a group does
not make offshore sailing safer in itself. Worse yet, departure dates and
locations may be driven by impacts beyond weather making it far more dangerous.
I love the concept of the Rally, but the sailor must make his/her own decisions,
have the right ship, have shaken down the vessel themselves after major
repair/upgrade, know how to sail their own boat safely, and maintain/repair at
sea the items that will jump up on the list. Sorry, a little rant maybe but
being part of a rally will not make up for poor weather decisions, a well found
ship, or crew experience. Unless it is truly unpredicted and brutal we cannot
simply blame the weather and the ocean.
