Atlantic Crossing Wrap-up and Photos

Phyllis and I are back in Newburyport. The Atlantic Crossing was a wonderful experience and I couldn't have had a better crew. Nick Jr and Adam were always willing to do the heavy lifting on the foredeck. Tom, who came after me in the watch rotation, always came on deck 10-15 minutes early to relieve me. Nick Jr did most of the cooking before we left Las Palmas. We had great meals thanks to him. Dan kept us all entertained and he turns out to be a pretty good backgammon player. Crossing the Atlantic in our own boat was a lifelong goal for me. I consider myself fortunate to have done it with such a willing and compatible crew.

Ready to cast off in Las Palmas, 11/22/09

Parasailor was great while it lasted

Mid-ocean view from the masthead

Exactly half way, 1387 miles to go.


Dan missed a lot of school, but learned other important life skills

Sunrise with two days to go

Crossing the finish line, 16 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes

Dan making Phyllis nervous in St Lucia

Our Last Day Dec 9th

December 9th, 2009

 

We arrived in St Lucia at four in the morning.  I had to get up because we had to get our picture taken while we were crossing the finish line and I haven't slept since then.  St Lucia is really a nice place.  If you are making a list of nice places you want tot go, put St Lucia on the top of your list, although there is one thing about it, it is really hot and the ocean isn't refreshing because it is 82 degrees and the outside air is about 86 degrees. I know that Adam will chuke me off the boat and into the bay.  Editors note--- Adam surprised Dan completely and threw him in, it was a very amusing moment.  Dan's last comment was that this was a trip of a lifetime and we all thought so too.

 

The last couple of day have been spent cleaning the boat from stem to stern and getting everything put back in place.  We have also spent some time on the beach, have gone to a fun ARC beach barbeque and went sailing to Marigot Bay today.  Adam jumped into the bay from the spreaders and it looked awesome from the water.  I have to go home tomorrow and we hear that it has been super cold.  I really like snow but this place is great.

 

Thanks to everyone who read my blog.  Daniel R Orem

 

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

We are 60 miles away from the point where you have to call the ARC
commitee and say you are going to arrive which is five miles away from
the island. Then there is a two mile check in point and then there is a
dock check in point. We are all ready to end this. Today has been one of
the most anxious moments of my short life. I am definitely not going to
win the arrival pool at this point. It is 17:53 local time and my guess
for the pool was about 21:45 and we are going about 6 knots. We have
about 65 miles to go so it is going to take us at least 11 hours to get
there.
A flying fish landed on our deck today and we used it as bait. It didn't
work so well it fell off so when we reeled it in we only had the hook.
We got a couple of bites today, but once again we did not catch any
fish.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Today we cruised along at 7 or 8 knots. Tomorrow we are supposed to
arrive. Our best guess right now is that we will get there between 10 pm
and midnight.
We had a strike from a big fish today but the barbs came off the hooks
and the fish got away. We have put out a new lure but have not gotten
any more bites.
Our instruments say that our maximum speed was 116 knots because the
paddle wheel sped way up. I don't know how but it did. At the speed we
are going now I might win the pool after all. We had a very good night
last night at have been going pretty quickly for most of the day today.

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Today there were no fire drills and we cruised along at 7 to 8 knots. I
am definitely not going to win the pool about when we are going to
arrive. The only way I can win is if the next two days are 200 mile
days, because I guesse we would arrive on Tuesday at 8:45 pm local time.
The only way I can win is if we have really good wind and current for
the rest of the trip.

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

Last night just as everybody was going to bed a squall hit. It knocked
us down a few times before we could the Parasailor choked down and under
control. It was really windy and poured rain for about half an hour and
then it passed. After the storm was over the wind completely died. We
had to take the Parasailor down and motor for an hour before the wind
came back. This morning something gave way on the top of the mast while
we were flying the Parasailor. The sail was flying way out in front of
us but before we could get it back on board it went it went into the
water. It wrapped around the bow and then ripped in half. It took about
an hour to get it out of the water because it was so full of water. We
packed it away because it is beyond repair by us and we can't use it any
more.

December 4, 2009

My dad made breakfast burritos this morning. The we went fishing again.
We didn't use the same lure because it broke when we lost the mahi mahi.
So we threw another in.

We got the parasailor back up after Poppy sewed in a new tack using the
webbing from a crotch strap that we weren't using.

We have not had a lot of wind again today so we averaged about 6 knots.
I we go at this rate it will take us 205 hours to get to St Lucia.

That was from Dan, this is from Nick Sr. I was speculating earlier
today about what this would be like if we weren't all pretty handy. A
brief rundown of the breakdowns and fixes during the last 48 hours:

1. Parasailor, tack ring wore through the webbing that attaches it to
the sail. Fix: appropriate the webbing from a crotch strap that wasn't
being used and sew onto the sail. Time: 2.5 hours. Tools required:
sail needles, 2 of which broke, sail makers palm to push the needle
through the sailcloth, and heavy thread.

2. Running lights: the running lights are protected from getting caught
by sheets for the regular sails, but the the Parasailor is rigged so far
forward that when the sheets go slack, they get under the running
lights, then the sail fills, the sheets snap taught, and several times
they have broken the lights off of their attachment and left them
dangling from their wires. Fix: rig a bungee cord to the Parasailor
guys to take up the slack, then rewire the lights (two times now) to
reconnect the wires that have been jerked loose. Time: 45 min each fix.
Tools required: pocket multi-tool, screw driver, and wire ties to
temporily reattach the lights.

3. Mainsail: small tear where the luff tape attaches to the sail. Time:
about 2 hours. Tools required: sail tape, spare sail cloth, sail
needles, sailmakers palm, and heavy thread.

4. Starter battery: The generator charges the house batteries, but does
not charge the starter battery. I had neglected to consider this until
yesterday when we tried to start the generator and discovered that the
starter battery was dead. Fix: remove one of the house batteries, bring
it to the engine room, fashion some jumper cables out of spare wire, and
jump start the main engine, which in turn charges the starter battery.
Time: about 1 hour. Tools required: multimeter, heavy gauge wire,
wrench.

5. Main saloon table: This is the fixed point that everybody grabs when
the boat heels. The force of all those people grabbling onto the table
eventually pulled out all the screws attaching the table to the cabin
sole. Fix: use some spare wood to fashion a cleat and make a stronger
attachment. Time: about 2 hours. Tools required: portable drill,
screwdriver, spare screws, etc.

6. Cabinet door in aft head: I fell against the door when a wave hit
while I was shaving and pulled the screws out of one of the hinges.
Fix: reattach the hinge with larger screws and epoxy glue. Time: about
an hour. Tools required: screwdriver, epoxy glue, spare screws.

I know this is getting boring, so I'll quit there, but you get the idea,
a handyman's dream cruise.

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Today we had almost no wind and slogged along at 4 to 5 knots. Yesterday
one of our running lights was knocked off its mount by one of the
spinnaker guys and was hanging by its wires. My grandfather was able to
reattach the light to its mount and fix the wiring so it worked again.
The weather is getting very warm especially when there is no wind. Last
night it was hard for me to get to sleep because it was so hot.

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 (addendum)

Today was very quiet until about sunset when my father noticed that the
clew ring on the Parasailor had mostly ripped out of the sail. My uncle
Tom then tried to start the engine so we would have it running while we
took the sail down. The engine would not start and we found that the
starter battery was dead. The problem is that the only way to charge the
starter battery is to run the engine. The starter battery is also used
to start the generator which charges the house batteries, so with it
dead we cannot charge any of the batteries.
We removed one of the house batteries and used it to jump start the
engine. The engine is now charging the starter battery so we should be
fine, except we do not know why it went dead in the first place.
We have now gotten the Parasailor down and will try and fix it tomorrow.
The wind is still very light. So we need the big sail up to really keep
moving.

Wednesday , December 2nd, 2009

Today we went fishing and caught a Mahi Mahi, but it got away while we
were trying to land it. It was blue green in color, but Poppy says that
they turn to a drab grey green almost instantly when they die. It was
about 2 - 2.5 feet long.
Since our bread supply is low we have been having our sandwiches on
tortillas instead of normal bread. Today I had a ham and cheese tortilla
except it wasn't cooked like a pizza, it was rolled like a borrito. I
expect to be having that the rest of the way unless dad decides to make
something special for lunch.

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Last night after I wrote the blog a flying fish flew through the hatch a
landed right next to where I was sitting. It was pretty surprising. We
threw it back in the water because it was too small to eat. They are
very neat looking. They are long and skinny with big eyes and even
bigger fins that they use as their wings.

Today the wind has been very strong and the waves are big. We have had
quite a few times today where the boat was almost horizontal and the
crazy people that I am sailing with decided not to take down the
spinnaker. We have gone 120 miles today at noon and we have not eaten
dinner yet so I think that at the end of today we will have gone 190
miles or more in one day. Right now we are trying to sail away from a
squall line so we are heading in the wrong direction which may cut down
on the number of miles we go.