Reflections

     There are so many things I could say. It’s hard to choose just a few.

     I think it’s fair to say that we (at least me) experienced nearly every possible emotion on this journey. Crossing an ocean is no walk in the park, unless of course the park in question is a vast ocean and you’re a tiny sailboat, a mere blip, bobbing up and down for month. If that’s the case, then it’s definitely a walk in the park. I think I’ve mentioned it on this blog before, but it’s worth mentioning again; sailing has some extreme lows but it also comes with some extreme highs that make up for everything else along the way.

     On this trip the secret was trying to enjoy all the moments for what they were and when that just wasn’t possible simply trying to keep my cool was the next best thing. Everything can change in a heartbeat on the sea. It was when things changed for the worst that I got overwhelmed. I knew from previous passages that freezing up and panicking wasn’t going to help anyone or anything on the boat. I think we were our own best medication in the face of looming danger. We relied upon each other for bravery, courage and sometimes just a good laugh when everything seemed to be falling apart. This is why the crew of Argo was great. As for me, I know I relied on the fearless spirit of Darvil more than once. His unyielding valor was undeterred by the worst of the worst. I tried to model my emotions after his; don’t worry about things out of your control and always think smart. My new motto was; don’t panic until Darv panics but then panic all you want! 

This guy...

Good thing we had two hammocks. Otherwise there might have been blood shed  

     When you’re staring down gnarly waves in monster storms you tend to put your priorities in order quickly. First on the list? Family, always. They might get taken for granted sometimes but they’re definitely the most important. This is a lesson you don’t need to sail the ocean to discover, but it certainly highlights, bolds and underlines the fact. 

BFF

Papa Bear & me 

     So while it was bittersweet to finally say goodbye to Argo I am walking away with the experience of a lifetime and one epic journey. I know we’ve soaked up every last ounce of this experience and I’ll be forever grateful to have shared this incredible voyage with my parents and husband. I couldn’t have asked for better company. But this isn’t going to be our last escapade, I know we’ll always be squeezing every last drop of adventure out of life. So until next time …    

Family makes the best crew :) 

  

The Home stretch

     The last 48 hours of the crossing were probably the hardest and most terrifying of the whole trip. The last two days seemed to last forever, probably because so much happened. The wind was relentless and blew over 40k. So much for ‘ fair winds and following seas’! We spent most of the last two days overpowered and surfing down step braking waves. 

Surfing' frothy waves  

      Because the rolling mechanism on our fore sail was broken there was no way to take in the sail. We were stuck with it out in full power. This caused us to heel over so far that the boom often splashed in the water. Under normal circumstances we would never have left that sail out because it is much too power to have out in strong winds.

     The hardest part though was the massive waves! As the days progressed the waves only built up higher and higher. I felt like I was starring down two story houses when I saw the big waves approaching from the stern. By the last night it was nearly impossible to steer. Darvil was the only person with enough strength to steer. Dad would relive him for 15 minutes so he could get a drink and go to the bathroom, and then he was back on. When the waves finally settled down early the next morning Darvil’s arms were like mush. Waves were constantly crashing over the front of the boat. At some point in the night a rope was washed over the side of the boat and wrapped itself around the propeller, so we had no motor.

     By about 2:00am we could see the lights of land, and by 5:00am we made our final jibe to try and make the harbour entrance. This was not going to be a normal arrival. We had two major problems. 1. There was no way to take down our fore sail 2. We had to motor.

Here was the game plan. To get the boat into the lee of the island so there would be no wind. Then we would take down the sail and finally Darvil would dive under the boat to cut the ropes loose from the propeller. Easier said than done …  

     With the wind direction and our “disabled” boat we could not make the opening of the harbour so we simply had to veer off. We knew of a huge rock called ‘Diamond Rock’ about a mile off shore and we headed a course for it hoping there would be a lee on one side of the rock. As we got behind the rock there was a reverse current that started to suck us in. Lets just say I we examined Diamond rock MUCH more closely we wanted to. That was terrifying. We realized that because it was so windy there was simply not going to be a leeward side of the island today. Dad called on the VFH for a tow boat. Meanwhile Darv was able to jump into the water and unravel the ropes from the propeller. Now we had an engine again. When the tow boat arrived there was no way to tow us when we had a big powerful sail out. It had to come down somehow. 

Diamond rock. This time from a safe distance. 

The tow boat that didn't tow us. Yet still gave us a hefty bill  

Trying to bring the sail down 

     We attempted to take it down several different ways but nothing would work, as the wind was too powerful. The sail was violently flapping and making a noise that sounded like thunder. I thought the entire bowsprit of the boat was going to come flying off.

     Darv eventually had to climb to the top of our 55-foot mast. We had a topping lift and a second rope attached to him for safety. Keep in mind the sail was still flapping and the boat was leaning hard from side to side. Darvil jumped from the mast to the stay and with a knife strapped to his hand and he ripped the sail as he slid down. He was the Hero of the day. We lost of sail, but all we cared about was the safety of the family.

up up up. 55feet. He had a toping lift on as a safety hardness 

My brave man! 

     Before Darv went up the mast he said “Em you better get this on video, I’m never doing this again”. So I have part of it on video, but unfortunately my hands we shaking harder than I thought so half the time the camera isn’t pointed on Darvil. But HERE is a link anyways (around minute 1:54).

Safe and sound 

Ship Shape

     No trans Atlantic Crossing would be complete without a few breakages and damages along the way and Argo was no exception. This shouldn't come as any surprise, 'BOAT' does stand for 'Bring On Another Thousand'… 

     We enjoyed our big beautiful mail sail for about 5 minutes before it ripped in a jibe. Without a main sail it is basically impossible to tack in our style of boat. This left controlled jibes as our only option. Jibing requires much more work, preparation and is more dangerous than tacking.

Our main sail 

    We found out a week into the trip that the alternator that charges our batteries was not working. We have 2 solar panels on the boat but they don’t produce enough energy to power everything on the boat. Luckily we have a small generator on the board. We were able to power the batteries with the generator but we had to be very conservative with our power. 

Some nights we would conserve the boat's battery power by using these portable lamps instead of our masthead lights. We mostly did this in the middle of the Atlantic when we rarely saw another boat.  

     About mid way through the crossing we had to use the motor a lot because there was very little wind. We were all sitting in the cockpit when all of the sudden the engine just stopped. Right away our stomachs dropped. Dad went down below and opened up the engine hatch and smoke began to billow out. After a few minutes the smoke disappeared enough that we could begin to investigate what had happened. The fan belt had fallen off and the engine over heated. When the engine cooled enough to work on it Darvil and dad rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Even after we fixed the engine we were still uncertain if the motor would work as it may have seized. Dad turned the key as we all held our breath …It turned on! Disaster narrowly avoided. 

Grease Monkey savin' the day 

     After a week without wind we were all relived when we finally got some 15 knots. We were under full Genoa sail. Sitting in the cockpit just before supper we all heard a loud noise. We all jumped up immediately to see what had caused the noise. What we saw was our fore stay and Genoa sail ripped out of our boat and blowing up into the air. This was very bad news. The rolling furling system that brings in the sail had blown to pieces. And our forestay which helps hold up the mast was ripped out of the deck. After about an hour Dad and Darvil were able to jury-rig the sail to the bowsprit of the boat using ropes. But now we were faced with having to be under full Genoa sail power with no way to reef. This can be very dangerous when strong winds come that can overpower your boat. We checked the makeshift repair daily, replacing ropes if they had chafed through.

The jury- rig 

Darv's masterpiece 

This thing wasn't going anywhere 

     We also hit a giant ball of tar in the middle of the ocean! We’re not sure if it was related to an oil spill or if it occurred naturally.  It didn’t do any damage to the boat but it did leave a big old tar stain on the bow of our boat! Dad was able to scrub it off with a lot of elbow grease when we landed on shore.

Most of the tar stain was on port side but you can still see some black stain on the starboard bow of the boat 

      Even with a lot of adversary thrown our way I was always amazed at how well my parents and Darvil dealt with our mishaps. It was good to have such optimistic and levelheaded crewmembers aboard. They might have been terrified on the inside but they all put up the bravest front. Argo had a courageous crew! 

Hard to be sad when Darv play's the happiest instrument in the world! We got some free concerts 

Dad chatting on the SSB 

Under da sea

     Darv edited two more great video compilations of the trip! Click HERE and HERE for the link.

     I wasn't the only one keeping records or jurnals on this trip! Darv kept a really detailed and great fishing log. So for all you fishing lovers out there here is the full log.

The glamorous life style: Spoiler Alert

    I may be about to ruin the romance of sailing for some of you. The next few paragraphs might shatter the picturesque illusion of what it looks like to sail across an ocean. These are the things that no one tells you and no one talks about. So forgive me.     

    After about a day on the sea you quickly forget any notion of sailing being an elegant and glamorous lifestyle. Contrary to what you might believe, sailing across the ocean is no holiday. It took us 28 long and often perilous days on the open wilderness of the sea to get to the Caribbean and it will take 24 hours to fly home. There must be some logic sailors are missing…  

     For most of the voyage you are doing everything on a 30 degree angle. And this angle keeps shifting from right to left. Opening the cupboards is basically a safety hazard. As soon as you open a cupboard all the contents begin to spill out or violently fly across the room depending on how badly the boat is rocking. When you sleep you can hear everything in the boat bang from one side to other as you roll in the waves. Earplugs are a must.  

Here's a little video we took to give you an idea of how the boat rocks. Note how much Darv's body moves back and forth. Also note the spoon flying across the table at one point!    

     When you walk across the room you are constantly bracing yourself with one hand holding onto something solid. We like to play a game where you try and walk as far as you can without falling or holding onto anything. An average score is about 10 steps.

     Cooking on a rocking sailboat is a challenge. Thank goodness for gimbaled stoves! When we plate dinner we usually end up taping the plates to the counter top. We learned this trick the hard way after all of our bowls of chicken went flying across the room. 

Darv roped in while cooking 

     You have to deal with tight living quarters with very little privacy. If you are a person who requires a lot of privacy you will have to buy a very big boat! For most of the trip I slept right on the kitchen table settee. The trick to sleeping is to wedge yourself into the smallest space you can find, and then sleep there. This helps to prevent you from rolling around.

Asleep in the galley. Note earplugs 

Me washing some clothes in a bowl 

     I don’t want to go into too much detail about luxurious bathrooms and toilets on sail boats. But just imagine if your bathroom at home was on a 30-degree angle and rocking back and forth. If you picture this, which I’m not encouraging, you might see how this causes some, umm, difficulty.  

     We have a shower on board, but it’s filled with provisions. Showers on long passages take up way too much fresh water. A sailor’s shower looks like baby wipes and a water bottle. 

Mom and I after the 'Argo Spa'. Aka washing your hair 

     Finally there are the night watches. It can be dark, cold and raining outside but you still have to wake up at 2:00am. On our boat we did six-hour watches with two people on each watch. That meant you tried to sleep on deck for 3 hours and the other 3 you were on duty. After about a week your body adjusts to the alteration of your sleep pattern.  

Dear Trade Winds, where are you?

     When you leave on a long voyage you only have a weather forecast for about the first week and then you’re stuck with whatever Mother Nature wants to throw your way. The route from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean follows the North East Trade Winds. These are constant steady winds that blow from the northeast and make for smooth but fast sailing.

     Well, this year the trade winds forgot what their job was. Week two brought very confused seas. We either had no wind, squalls with huge gusts and rain or lots of wind coming from the wrong direction. Our progress towards our destination slowed down to a halt. It was a constant battle with the wind. We would put up the sails and the wind would die. Then you take down the sails and turn on the engine just to get more wind in an hour. We were adrift on the ocean for a few days as we were trying to conserve our diesel. We spent a good amount of time each day complaining about how we were getting weather that according to the “trade winds” was non existent. Each day without wind we could tack on another day to our voyage. And the days were adding up. We began to joke that sailing had become prison with a chance of drowning.    

One of the many flying fish that landed aboard 

Dad working his magic with our wind vane "Wallie" 

Typical lunch on the sea 

Rainbows after the storm 

Calm seas make me happy 

Darv steering in a squall. Pouring rain. 40k winds. He's a trouper 

And so it began

     Day one we set off from Lanzarote with nearly 3000 nautical miles ahead of us, full of excitement and a bit of that “what the heck am I getting myself into” attitude. It was very windy as we left the harbour that afternoon. Everything was going great for about five minutes until we made an accidental jibe and ripped our main sail before we even passed the official starting line. The good news is that for a downwind sailing trip your main sail is not very important. So we hoisted up the Storm Tri sail, which is almost the same as a double reefed main sail and we were ready to take on the Atlantic. 

Leaving port in Lanzarote 

Our first night out dolphins came to greet us 

Our first night on the sea 

     The first week we had good strong winds and we were making good on our course. Darv devised a rope ladder so that he could jump of the boat and swim in the water. Pods of dolphins would often swim and play around the boat and Darv would jump into the water and try and capture them on video. I was a little apprehensive to jump into the ocean and let the boat drag me along but in the end I jumped in too. I have never seen such perfectly clear inky blue water! It was gorgeous, although for the most part I didn’t see any fish when I snorkelled in the middle of the ocean. 

Darv exploring some floating debry out at sea 

The first week, when we still had fresh fruit

The first fish! 

Darv getting dragged 

Snorkelling in the middle of the ocean 

Not letting him go!  

     Mom and I had even made as any pre made dinners as would keep in our fridge, so we didn’t even have to try cooking on a 30-degree angle yet. The moon was full and at night it looked like a great spotlight guiding our way. For the most part the sun was shinning and the crew of Argo was in good spirits. After all why wouldn’t we be, it was only the first week …

Happy sailing wife 

Checking for boats probably! 

That's some serious rigging. Wing on wing action 

A true sailor 

Fresh poke! Nothin' betta 

The spinnaker is full and beautiful