Follow our progress!

If any one is interested in following our progress across the Atlantic you can do so at this address:

http://www.atlanticodyssey.org/rally-2013-14/track-the-boats/

Just look for the boat "ARGO". This will give you a pinpoint of our location on the Atlantic Ocean using a transponder. 

Argo crew is pumped! 

Argo begins its odyssey

     Its been an enjoyable, informative and busy week on Lanzarote, and now it’s time to set sail tomorrow. We are part of a group called the Atlantic Odyssey, which consists of about 23 boats that will depart the harbor at noon. After about the first day we likely won’t see anyone from the group until we meet in the Caribbean on the island of Martinique though! We expect the trip to take about 21 days and we’ll be stopping at every Holiday Inn along the way (Haha,). 

Boats in the Marina Lanzarote 

Helicopter rescue demonstration 

How many people can you fit in an 8 man life raft? 6. 

Castle by the sea 

     It’s been a bee hive of activity these last few days with all the boats and crew crossing off the finals to-do’s on their lists. I think after about 7 trips to the grocery store we have enough food and provisions aboard. I just hope we have enough chips to last the duration. Darv plans to troll along the way so hopefully we'll have some tasty fish dinner as well! 

Octopus lovin' 

Darv caught it AND cooked it! So delicious! He's the boss at cooking anything from the sea!  

     Dad and Darv are at the skipper’s briefing right now then it’s off to the farewell party and fireworks here at the yacht club. Finally, we'll all take some sea sickness pills and try not to have nightmares tonight! 

   

So long dock days, you've been good to us!   

 

Dad was the first of all the boats to raise the "Atlantic Odyssey" flag, so we won this gem!

   

So long solid ground and cute cafes! 

See you later civilization! See you all in three weeks!

“May we have fair winds and following seas” 

A word from Darvil

     Special thanks to John Ski for squaring me away with fishing gear and and deep-sea trolling knowledge. Also thanks to Larry Fealy for loaning me his exceptional fishing reel. Thanks also to my parents for their support, and especially my in-laws for making this sailing / fishing trip possible and sharing their vessel with us! 

Jonny Ski and Darvil getting ready for the big trip on Fishers Island, NY 

Our Week on the Moon

     Driving around in our rental car on the roads of Lanzarote feels more like being astronauts first exploring the Moon or Mars! Rocky. Sandy. Dessert. Since the island is volcanic, all the native life was destroyed in several dramatic eruptions in the 1800’s. While most of the inland of the island has an inhospitable terrain, the coast has some beautiful sand beaches. 

Looking out our car window on the drive 

More moonscape 

Waves and wind on the coast 

 Small fishing boats 

     Animals on the island are few and far between, but Mom and I found some to ride. We can now happily cross off “ride a camel” on the old bucket list… If it was on there to start! Camels are a notoriously grumpy lot and our camel didn’t disappoint. He made it quite clear with his stubborn grunts that he was content to sit and relax rather than take us for a ride! But he got over his obstinacy and we enjoyed a windy and scenic ride through the “moon” desert.     

My new ride  

He felt like sheep's wool 

     We also visited the national volcano park. Since the rock under the surface of the ground is still extremely hot, they can actually cook food over grills if they dig deep enough holes. They have a restaurant in the park where they cook your meal over one of these “natural grills”.

blowin' away 

Cooking over the natural grills 

Darvil has been exploring the island from under the sea. He’s spearing up a storm and we’re eating as fresh as it gets! His toolbox of spices we lugged in our suitcase from the states has been very useful in cooking up some delicious dinners. 

Comin' in from the sea 

Catch of the day- courtesy of Darv 

     We have been going to demonstrations and seminars on different aspects of sailing this past week in order to get ready for the trip. Tonight is a live helicopter rescue simulation and flare demonstration. Slowly we are getting everything in order to take off on Sunday!     

The one that got away

     48 hours of beautiful sailing weather later and we are now comfortably docked in the city of Arrecife, on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. We all got our sea legs and miraculously no one has been seasick yet (knock on wood).  And if you’ve ever thought that being on a sailboat isn’t exercise, think again! The smallest task, like pouring a glass of water, is a total isometric workout. When aboard these are the small victories. Now picture trying to go to the bathroom… 

Saying Goodbye to Madeira 

Beautiful sail weather 

     So it was all comfortable cruising on Argo until about 2 hours before we were about to arrive and then there was all out excitement on the sea! Darv’s big plan for this trip is to troll everyday we are on the water and hopefully catch a few nice fish. Second day of trolling and we hooked our first fish. This one was a fighter! It took every ounce of Darvil’s energy not to get pulled over the boat. The fish was going to be too big for Darvil to take on alone so dad joined in on the fight. But Darvil will tell you the story better, so here it is straight from the horse’s mouth:

     “When the thing first hit, it took all my body weight just to keep the thing from pulling me overboard. I had a lanyard on the rod, but the lanyard couldn’t take any of the weight because it goes from the rod to a point behind me. So if I ever let that lanyard start to tense up, it would tighten up against my waist and pull the rod to the side, and too far would cause it to slip out of my belt.  This was my first deep sea fish, so I had no idea what I was up against, but I knew I needed a winch! After 20 minutes my arms started to turn to mush, (keep in mind we were moving at a good 5 or 6 knots on a sailboat) and I needed help if anything would happen. The thing spooled the line a couple of times (and the drag was set VERY high). After an hour we got it close enough to the boat that we could see it was a blue fin tuna.  In another hour, we had it on is side right up to the back of the boat. Chas had been helping me support the rod, as I sat on the deck with my feet up on the rails. Soon, Em came back to relieve Chas as he readied the homemade gaff to hook him. He was massive, a foot longer than I am tall, and must have weighed over 200 lbs.  I really have no idea, it may have been 300. I remember thinking that we would need to come up with a good trick to get such a huge fish 5 feet up onto the deck. Just as we were going to gaff him, snap, the line broke. The line broke, and so did my heart. It was some good action, but I think I’ll be bitter about that ending for the rest of my life. This was yesterday and I still can’t move my arms.”  

Our first sight of the fish! TUNA!

He's excited now ! 

It's a big guy!  

Team work 

Givin' it his all 

So close ... 

Just before the line broke :( 

     So there you have it! We all had a good cry but then it was back to the business of sailing ourselves to Lanzarote. There’s always more fish in the sea… We made land fall in the Canaries about 11:00 am and arrived at our marina at dusk with barely enough light to dock. But with the help of a few spotlights we managed to make it in safely. This morning we had to change dock slips, and let’s just say it takes a village to dock Argo in a tight slip with windy conditions! At last head count we had 11 friendly sailors that were ready to catch a line! Dad wasn’t sure if he had enough beers to thank everybody!  

Exploring Madeira

     After catching up on most of our sleep Friday, we were reunited with Argo on Saturday. It’s been almost two years since the last time Darvil and I saw Argo, but it felt like we barely skipped a beat. We wasted no time organizing our belonging, replacing toilets and rigging sails. Mom and dad had already done a lot of organizing by the time we got here though! Two of our bags of lost luggage still have not arrived! The whole ordeal has been one step forward and two steps back. First they tell us they’re on their way, then they tell us they are still lost, then one of the bags is found, next mysteriously they are all missing again, and finally our latest news is that they should arrive past midnight tonight, but were not holding our breath! Aye yi yi!  

Argo on the Hard. The concrete pillars are holding up the airport runway directly above us :o! 

Dad's new captain's quarters ;)

     In spite of the luggage fiasco we’re all having a great time though! We had an exciting day touring around the capital city of Madeira, Funchal. The highlight of the visit was definitely “tobogganing” down the extremely narrow and steep streets of Monte (a suburb of Funchal) in wicker sleds with greased up wooden runners! Two men following behind act as drivers of the sled using their feet to brake and ropes to direct the sled; they do their best to avoid the steady steams of oncoming traffic! The idea of it ruffled our nerves a little but it wasn’t nearly as scary as we anticipated. It is still probably the coolest 2km I’ve traveled inside a city and the closest I’ll get to a convertible. 

Ready to take off 

ready, set, sled! 

The men waiting for their next takers 

     We also drove the coast of almost the entire island; it’s not too big! The views were spectacular and the flora of the island is beautiful. I think driving around the coastal roads is how the locals get their thrills! The more narrow the road the better and if it doesn’t have guardrails, no problem! Let’s just say driving along the coast was way more ‘white knuckle’ than the toboggan ride! But lucky for us, Dad was a champ behind the wheel and drove us safely! 

What a view!

We're pretty happy 

Sheer cliff on the other side of that guardrail! 

Tiny towns built into the hills 

     Our stay on Madeira has been great, but we’re all excited to set sail tomorrow! If all goes well (and the bags arrive) we will leave in the morning for Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. It should be a 2-day sail as long as we get some good northeasterly winds! See you when we get there!  

Leaving on a jet plane

     On Thursday morning Darv and I were off to an early start to catch our plane out of LAX. Our plane ended up being two hours delayed, which meant we wouldn’t make any of our connection flights! So, in our moment of need, Darv stepped up to the plate by cutting a 300 person line and managing to get us on already boarded plane, that was headed to our same connection. We left from LAX, had a layover in Newark, flew across the pond to Lisbon and finally caught our last flight to Madeira. We got plenty of exercise sprinting through the air ports, lots of reading done waiting in long customs lines and plenty of grey hairs worrying over our 3 bags of lost luggage. Most importantly we arrived in Madeira safely, and all’s well that ends well, right.

   

     Mom and dad were waiting for us at the airport and we all drove back to the hotel in Machico. We took a walk around the cobble stoned downtown and ate dinner on our balcony over looking the ocean and a sea of terracotta roofs. After sleeping upright, on top of suitcases, between strangers and rolled into tight balls, we slept like kings on our queen-sized bed. One of our lost luggage’s (that ended up in Germany?!) arrived this morning and the other two we are told will arrive this afternoon. Things seem to be shaping up to a beautiful first day in Madeira. Here are some pictures from our morning walk along the beach.  

Lava stone beach 

Sand beach 

Darv was going to get this lure but it's too small..

Not a bad view from the balcony