THIS IS THE PERSONAL LOG OF THE TRANS ATLANTIC JOURNEY OF THE GOOD SHIP FABULOSO BY N. WAKE October 31, 2013 Preparing to cast off wind out of the NE 20 /25 First stop Grand Canary 125 nm 5:10 UTC Crew; Todd Orrell, Captain Mike Zani, Ships Master and First Mate Andres Ramirez, PHD and Cook Norrie Wake, Swabby Spent day stowing gear, cooking 8 to 10 meals, filing water tank Cast off at sun set to make the run to Grand Canary, 120 miles. Wind 25 with gusts to 39 mph. We traveled south between Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria where we encountered Katabatic winds which are referred to in some areas as Williwaws, funneled winds passing through a narrow pass. Seas 6 to 9 feet but looked more like 15/20. Sick sick sick. Started as soon as we hit rough water. Tried to stand my watch 8-12 midnight but had to make numerous contributions to the Atlantic. helpless as a baby! Laying down was the only solution. No food, no water. Crew kept a close eye on me. Sorry Ginger crystals had no effect. During the night had to jibe once in high wind. We were sailing down wind all night. Broke the traveler (not a good thing) and tore some side railing. Stansions. Jibing is more difficult than tacking into the wind because the boom crosses the ship very fast and hard. Required jibe experienced sailors to control, had to furl the main sail and proceed with jib only. We hit 13.9 knots with full sail 7 knots with just the one sail. Traveled from marina Rubicon, Isla De Lanzarote to Purto de Mogan, Gran Canaria, Arrived 12 noon November 1. Feeling better by evening. Had a steak dinner prepared by captain Todd on the back deck. Andres made mashed potatoes. Tasted wonderful after nothing for 24 hrs. Afternoon of 1st spent assessing damage and preparing a check of things that need fixing. Biggest challenge will be finding 8mm ball bearings. Today is All Saints day, big Holliday nothing open. First run a good test for Fabuloso. November 2, Todd, Mike and Andres in search of welder and ship chandler for repairs. I stayed on board to keep my sea legs and do the laundry for every one. Just ran out of fresh water. Must learn to make water before crossing. Could become important. Islas Canarias , a volcanic archepeligo. Barren, big vacation area. Spectacular mountains, climbers paradise. Part of Spain, euro is the coin of the realm. Nov 3, 4 spent making repairs, more beer, borrowed a repair kit for the dingy, slow leak. Lest you think that I am setting out to sea in a wash-tub. Fabuloso is actually a very nice and well maintained sailing vessel known as a catamaran which has two hulls unlike most sailing vessels know as mono-hulls. Ten years old. It has three sleeping areas, two heads (bathrooms, and they are literally bathrooms, when the door is closed it becomes the shower and everything gets wet so keep the TP high), a salon for sitting around an inside table in bad weather (also the communication center and counter to make log entries during the trip at the end of the watch), a galley which had a three burner stove, oven, refrigerator, freezer, two sinks and hot and cold running water both fresh and salt. Every nook and cranny is used for storage of pots, pans, dishes, dry goods. The sleeping areas are at or below water level so you dont open the porthole when you are under sail. The on deck potion of the vessel has a table, sitting area and helm with the compass, auto pilot, wind direction indicator, and vessel speed and wind speed indicator. Other deck areas were not for recreation but work areas. At night you had to have your life jacket on and be tethered to the safety lines if you were outside of the cockpit. One slip at night and it would be all over if you were not clipped in. Just like the Alpine Tower!! Nov 5, left Gran Canaria at 5 pm. Mechanical power for 10 miles to get out of the shelter of the island and into the wind. (We have two diesel engines and a diesel powered generator). Added main then added jib. Dinner in the cockpit. Andrase is a good cook, beef stew with leftover Paella on a warm flour tortilla and a side salad. Sun set beautiful. Another cat (French) left at the same time but were taking a more northerly route. Our bearing is 224 SE. We will sail south until the butter melts and then head east. My first watch at sea was from 8-10 then from 2-6 am. We will be on 4 and off 4. Right now there are two on each watch staggered with Mike and Todd overlapping. Shooting stars, belt of Orion, Big Dipper , North Star and two ships in the night. Unbelievably beautiful. Nov 8, am Un expected detour, heading for Cape Verdes for repairs and provisioning since we need to stop anyway. We flew the spinnaker for one day and part of the night. I was at the helm when the head of the sail broke causing the sail to collapse. We ran over the sail and tore a big gash. All hands on deck! Todd, Mike and Andres worked the sail off the bow and onto the boat. Could not proceed until all lines were on board. The spinnaker is like a giant kite that pulls the boat along. Works best in light wind. We left it up too long....if we lowered it earlier would have seen chaffing. Battery on port engine not working. Todd bridged off of boat batteries. Seems to be working fine now. Something else for CV. Caught a Dorado, fish for dinner! Mike fixed smoked salmon, eggs, avocado on a flour tortilla for brunch, great! One Step From Eternity is where we are all the time . Real hard to effect a rescue in high winds and seas. Harness every night. Great team building exercise. A constant state of vigilance and readiness. Nov 9 Cape Verde today. Late afternoon. Mike has a punch list of things to do. Sail,fuel, food, laundry, clean boat. Andres prepared savache for dinner. These guys know how to cook! Nov 10 Sunday, laundry, groceries with assistance from our newest team member. Joe is a Cape Verdian and meets us every time with the question do you have a job for me. He speaks several languages. He was very helpful with language and money issues in the local community market. Cape Verde is an independent nation and is part of the African Continent. This was an unexpected stamp in the passport. Regarding money, Visa and MasterCard are almost worthless without something called the chip which all businesses require in Europe and Africa. Togo the sailmaker and repair guy picked up the sail and said that hed have it done Monday am. Mike will check us in and out of customs. Hope to leave by afternoon. Marina Mandello on st. Vincent island very international. You have to buy water for your boat, 2 Euro cents per liter. Nov 11 final preparations (: for actual trans Atlantic crossing. Sail returned, I paid $200 for the repair bill, small enough under the circumstances. Topped off water, diesel . Todd found oil leak on starboard engine. MUST be repaired prior to departure. while we were idling waiting to get to the fuel station a warning sound kept going off. Todd checked. I went back into town and bought 10 liters of diesel oil $65. Living on an island sounds romantic but it is not cheap. Repairs made. We left at 6:30 pm for USV. Nov 12 Spent getting back into routine. 4 hours on 4 hours off. 200 nm visited by owl and finch. Finch spent night on board. Half moon. You can see about 456 square miles of sea. No other boats. Nov 13 Wednesday 363.39 nm from CV. Heading 280 degrees. Spotted another sailing vessel 12 miles off starboard. Hailed them, Aconda, heading to Virgin Islands with passengers to drop off. Put up second spinnaker and it blew out also. Big ring in the head must have rusted. The spinnaker went under the boat and I put the engines in neutral just in time to keep from tangling the sail and lines in the props. Bad luck with the spinnakers. Finch flew off this morning to its death I am sure. Nov 14-15 Lost the wind! Engines are keeping us on course and traveling forward at 5 to 6 knots. Not enough fuel to make the entire trip without a fresh wind. M texted Kimo for a weather update, wonderful thing sat phones! May be Monday before the wind picks up and further to the south. Motor on. Changed time (2 hr) for watch which makes it tough on sleep schedules. I nap off and on throughout the day which sounds like fun but you miss the blocks of sleep. During the day we read (I am reading Folletts: Winter of World, second in the trilogy) Caught two tunas one 18 pounds and the second 20 pounds. Tuna steaks for supper. Raw and cooked! Started playing/ teaching Bridge. Planing a mid Atlantic swim! 1085 NM. We are currently at 826. Nov 16 Saturday. Still motoring looking for wind. Put up Omega spinnaker. Todd prepared a roast of beef,mashed potatoes,carrots. Delicious dinner. I am not eating great quantities of food...there is always the threat sea sickness lurking in the background. Nov 17 Sunday Not just zipping along but according to the commander (This is a guy in New England that provides a weather service to ships in the Atlantic). The wind will pick up today and Monday and get us back on course. Flew the spinnaker again and spotted some prior repairs that need patching. Took the kite down, made repairs and put it back up, tore, split, blew-up at the first gust. Out of spinnakers! 3 sails left. The main sail, the jib and one called the Code Zero which is in front of the jib. I cooked. Warmed up left overs. Everyone gets to cook every fourth night. Nov 18 Monday Reached halfway point from Cape Verde to USVI. Mike thinks seven more days. Hope so! Evening watch I noticed lightening in the northwest. By my second shift the storm had stretched across the horizon and we had rain and waves coming on board. All hatches are battened!!! A little scary, but everyone else confident. Our postage stamp continues to float. Nov 19 Tuesday Have to write the day and the date to keep track since we are part of a continuous process. Nov 20-21 Wednesday and Thursday Riches to rags. Lots of wind on Tuesday causing some real high seas and serious pounding then we lost all wind and spent Wednesday with the motors running to have any forward . With sails deployed we have gone as fast as 15.8 nmh. With just one engine we can hit 5.5 nmh. Generator quit during night watch so decided to wait until daylight to try and fix. It charges the batteries which run about everything on the boat: Navigation (auto pilot, yes we dont steer the boat ourselves unless we have to) refrigeration, running lights, cell phones, iPads, computers. Todd went to work in the am and determined that is was he fuel injectors. That needed bleeding, we,d be up the creek without some knowledge about engines. Forgot maybe the most important thing the generator runs: water desalintation. Wednesday so calm we stopped the engines and the guys took a swim. Mid Atlantic, 4,000 feet to the bottom, I stayed on board to guard the ship from pirates. The water is so clear! The big question now is do we have any wind to drive us and if not do we have enough fuel to make it on the engines and keep the generator going. It is looking like it will be closer to thanksgiving for arrival. Both Sails are up in gull wing formation. Nov 22 Friday Antigua! That is where we are headed. Need to refuel to make into USVI. Putting last diesel in the tank now! Fills to just over one half tank. Andres may leave us in Antigua. He needs to be home by Thanksgiving. We have one final tank, 5 galleons. Mike estimates we have 58 hours of motoring available but we need 20 more. The trades have not been steady maybe they will kick in now, pray! When sailing you are in a perpetual state of problem solving, wind, mechanical,navigation etc. Nov 23 Saturday Went through several squalls last night. Rain is warm. Wind picks up and is variable causing a lot of sail adjustments. Porpoise visited again (as they have across the entire Atlantic). Flying fish are prevalent, some land on the deck in the dark. We caught three tunas, two Doritos (mahi mahi) and sadly one sea gull. Each tuna weighted between 18 and 22 pounds. Sea birds have been with us through out the journey 1000 miles or more from land. Where do they sleep? Wind is so light we have to run the motor. Running low on fuel. Have the sail (s) out to enhance the speed by one or two knots. We may limp into Antigua on fumes Monday am. My unofficial, self determined, Myers-Briggs assessment of my four shipmates: Mike ENTJ Todd ISTP Andreas INTJ Norrie ENTJ Nov 24 Sunday Some good wind off the stern so we are making good time. Plan seems to be to clear British customs on Monday, take day to fuel up and water, maybe do laundry. Have a dinner on shore and leave Andres to take ferry the next am to get to airport on St Thomas. Mike, Todd and I will sail on Tuesday. Anxious to hear my wifes voice and catch up on what is happening. There has not been a day pass that I have not thought of her. Into Nelson Harbor early in the morning No sharp edges on a boat, bad on sails. Sailing is perpetually balancing wind, waves, current to maximize the skill and equipment you have to work with. I am reading my fourth book. The complete works of Shakespeare will be all I have left. Jeffery Archers Prison Diary is a pretty accurate description of life inside. Must share this with Lesley per our conversation before I left. LOOKING FORWRD TO SEEING LAND! Nov 25 Monday Antigua (pronounced Antiga if you dont want to sound like tourist) Got in after mid night! Nelson Harbor. lord Nelson used this harbor to refit his sailing ships during one of the wars with France. Tied up and drank a lot of beer and slept in calm waters. Gassed up, water and customs then sailed to Falmouth Harbor to meet Todds friends Dennis and Jewell who run Waterside Hostel. (Denniscompton@caribbean-hostels) Had a great lunch in a very Hemmingwayisque setting. Communicated with Nancy and Conley this am. November 28 Thursday, Thanksgiving Do sort so feel like the pilgrims must have felt when they landed in Plymouth. The last two days we have crossed from Antigua to Tortola , British Virgin Islands. Highest winds 25-30 knots and roughest water of the trip. Three of us sailed Fabuloso on two hour shifts. Really missed our shipmate Andres. No restful sleep! Passed so many Saints in the dark (St Kits Christopher, St Barts Barthalomue) thought Id become a Catholic. Made it to Tortola where we will harbor and undergo a refit of sails and rigging and await the arrival of Conley, Wake and Wyatt. We understand that they are currently experiencing a Winter storm...what a change they are in for!!! Todd left for San Francisco on Wednesday leaving just Mike and I to get ready for Conleys arrival. Now that I am back on dry land and somewhat safer, that is if I dont get run over by a car due to not looking right first rather than left...the British system (Mike saved me more than once), I can start to put some of this experience in perspective. Sailing is a giant metaphor for life, teamwork, community, problem solving, making things happen when it might not have been in the plan. For years Ive told folks that the Alpine Tower is just like a sailing ship ((visually and practically). You have to work as a team and do your job what ever it is. Be responsible, yours or someone elses life depends on it. Each team member has unique talents which are necessary to the success of the trip. Be trust worthy. If you cant or wont do these things then stay on dry land and take what you are given but dont complaine. I know that I am pumped up by the experience so I wont say more at this time. Hey Lesley what a great reality show this would make! Thanksgiving is not observed in the BVIs but the harbor side restaurant is providing a Thanksgiving Buffet with all of the traditional offerings. We plan to attend. Loki, the engine guy will return this am to finish. Mark, the rigger is done; five times up and down the mast. The electrician will finish also today, Three sails are being examined and repaired. Hopefully they too will be done soon. My job is clean the heads, kitchen, inventory the frig and freezer. Fresh tuna anyone? We have had raw tuna, tuna steak, tuna fish salad and still have 30 pounds plus and probably 10 pounds of mahi-mahi. Some excitement yesterday. Big fancy inflatable boat with twin 350 Yahamas pulls in beside us. Elderly woman has severely lacerated herself. They have been staying on a privately owned island at $25,000 per day. A little ambulance arrives but the folks dont appear to know exactly how to operate the gurney...Mike and Todd end up organizing the transfer. So much for having tons of money, sometime it just doesnt make a difference if there are no medical services available. Nov 29 Friday Mike has gone to St Thomas to meet Conley, the boys and pick up a part for the dingy motor. Life has been a series of problems to solve when it comes to this vessel but it got us here safely. We were motoring in the dingy to a chandler on the other side of the harbor when one of the locals motioned to us that the engine was not circulating water ( his name is Samson and he is about the right size). Samson determined that it was the impeller on the engine that needed to be replaced. Sail guy returned with two of the three sails. Ive cleaned the head on my side, scrubbed the deck, coiled the hose and had one gin and tonic from the harbor bar which is about 75 feet away. Working on second G&T. Feeling no pain!!! November 29, Friday, Conley, Wake and Wyatt arrive! How great to see them. The boys are out of their minds with excitement and looking forward to the next five months of sailing throughout the islands. Im Looking forward to being home and with you! I will start the journey tomorrow November 30, with a ferry ride to saint Thomas at about 2:30 pm The island is covered up with chickens and rosters which start crowing at about 4:30 am. The local general store is playing Christmas Carols over the loud speakers. Really hard to adjust to the fact that this is Advent already. Minor corrections when I said the guys went swimming in mile deep water it was really two miles deep by the charts. What a great adventure. It was all about teamwork, problem solving, communication and trust and I was a part of it. Fabuloso was a great sailing ship! I noticed that when we were docked and folks could see the name, they would smile and talk to each other and I was confident that they must have sensed what a great ship and certainly what a heroic trip it had been on…it was only latter, when I was in the local grocery store that a saw a bottle of all purpose cleaner, you guessed it, it was called FABULOSO. Be humble folks!
Posted on: Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:21:35 +0000