Our arrival here in Antigua last week was one of the best moments of my life and one that I dreamt of incessantly since leaving the Canaries in early January and especially during this last passage. During the past week, we have been resting, spending time and exploring the island with my parents and Shelagh and Alan, cleaning and restoring the boat to ‘cruising mode’ and basking in the afterglow of having successfully completed what was for us, an incredible, epic journey which began in La Rochelle last August and ended this January with a 14 day passage across the Atlantic Ocean from Cap Verde to the Caribbean. 14 days at sea! A relatively short time in a lifespan, but trust me, a very very long time to be a boat without seeing land.
There is much I want to share of our experience, but where to start? Given that a complete accounting would entail too much information for some, I’ve decided to be as brief as possible (ha-ha) in this blog post, but for those brave souls who would like to hear even more, you can read a fairly detailed account with photos of what it was like to be onboard Taka Trois during the crossing on a new page here on this website entitled “The Crossing.” (http://www.takadventures.com/the-crossing.html) .
I guess a good way to begin is by saying that the journey was both much easier and much MUCH harder than I expected. From a purely sailing, technical and a ‘what-if’ standpoint, it was a breeze. We had no major technical problems, no accidents, no medical emergencies and managed to sail at a decent speed for most of the journey without too much effort or mishap and arrived at our destination within at our original estimated timeframe.
There is much I want to share of our experience, but where to start? Given that a complete accounting would entail too much information for some, I’ve decided to be as brief as possible (ha-ha) in this blog post, but for those brave souls who would like to hear even more, you can read a fairly detailed account with photos of what it was like to be onboard Taka Trois during the crossing on a new page here on this website entitled “The Crossing.” (http://www.takadventures.com/the-crossing.html) .
I guess a good way to begin is by saying that the journey was both much easier and much MUCH harder than I expected. From a purely sailing, technical and a ‘what-if’ standpoint, it was a breeze. We had no major technical problems, no accidents, no medical emergencies and managed to sail at a decent speed for most of the journey without too much effort or mishap and arrived at our destination within at our original estimated timeframe.
Image courtesy of Ian and Ruth Sommerville aboard the yacht Bizim (see photos of them below) who we encountered mid-Atlantic. They kindly forwarded some photographs they took of us and they were waiting in our inbox when we arrived--pretty cool!
What was also easy, was how life became very simple revolving around a routine of sleeping, eating, keeping the boat and ourselves relatively clean and amusing ourselves all while keeping the boat moving in the right direction as safely and quickly as possible. That, however, was probably the main cause of stress on board and as crew, I didn’t have as much of that burden as our skipper did, but we all shared in it nevertheless.
Patrice, our faithful skipper would say that the sailing was not without its challenges. With the wind coming from behind us for most of the trip, our main point of sail was downwind, a difficult point of sail especially with swells of over 2 meters rocking us back and forth over that course and putting us in danger of gybing for a good part of the trip. Although we had installed ‘a brake’ to stop the main sail from gybing, with winds of force 5 on average and squalls which brought us sudden gusts of up to force 7, we couldn’t trust it 100%. We therefore chose to do a fair amount of our sailing with just the headsail. Unfortunately we were unable to use our new Code 5 sail or the Spinnaker which would’ve been perfect sails to use to sail downwind, but were too fragile and unwieldy to use in winds above 15 knots. In the end we did an average speed of well over 6 knots on our route which was not bad, all things considered.
Patrice, our faithful skipper would say that the sailing was not without its challenges. With the wind coming from behind us for most of the trip, our main point of sail was downwind, a difficult point of sail especially with swells of over 2 meters rocking us back and forth over that course and putting us in danger of gybing for a good part of the trip. Although we had installed ‘a brake’ to stop the main sail from gybing, with winds of force 5 on average and squalls which brought us sudden gusts of up to force 7, we couldn’t trust it 100%. We therefore chose to do a fair amount of our sailing with just the headsail. Unfortunately we were unable to use our new Code 5 sail or the Spinnaker which would’ve been perfect sails to use to sail downwind, but were too fragile and unwieldy to use in winds above 15 knots. In the end we did an average speed of well over 6 knots on our route which was not bad, all things considered.
As a team, the three of us were very complementary and rarely had a disagreement or a cross word. We handled most maneuvers and the problems we encountered fairly smoothly and although we all had our ‘moments’, on the whole we managed to remain calm and we did a good job of encouraging each other, boosting each other up and keeping our sense of humor. Having the Iridium satellite phone and therefore being able to stay in touch with our loved ones helped enormously. Patrice stayed in touch with two of the boats that were crossing with us via satellite e-mail and it was good to know that we were not alone out there.
Two of my personal concerns before leaving were seasickness and having enough fresh food. In the end, I only had a bit of queasiness at the beginning, but no real seasickness, thank God, so I felt pretty good for most of the trip and I was able to function normally and perform my duties easily. My concern about food was also unnecessary. We had enough fresh food and rarely had to open a tin can (I have an intense loathing of Spam and other such canned delicacies traditionally used by sailors on long hauls). As those of you who followed us on the blog saw, we managed to prepare some wonderful meals which greatly helped our morale.
What was so very hard for me was in fact a combination of several factors: The seemingly endless number of days ahead of us, the sheer monotony (there were days and days and days when we saw NOTHING except that seething ocean), the constant vigilance and therefore a constant, under-lying stress that something could go wrong and the never-ending fight to stay balanced on the heaving ‘bronco’ that Taka Trois had become and even the smallest tasks were exasperating and exhausting (to get an idea of the movement and the swells have a look at the slideshow below). This was all highly amplified by serious sleep deprivation which has always been a bête noire for me personally. We never got more than 6 hours of sleep at a stretch (if that) and although we took every opportunity to nap during the day, the lack of continuous sleep eventually took a toll on our mental outlook. Every three days or so for me, I could feel my spirits plummeting and it was only the kindness of my shipmates and my faith that kept me going.
Two of my personal concerns before leaving were seasickness and having enough fresh food. In the end, I only had a bit of queasiness at the beginning, but no real seasickness, thank God, so I felt pretty good for most of the trip and I was able to function normally and perform my duties easily. My concern about food was also unnecessary. We had enough fresh food and rarely had to open a tin can (I have an intense loathing of Spam and other such canned delicacies traditionally used by sailors on long hauls). As those of you who followed us on the blog saw, we managed to prepare some wonderful meals which greatly helped our morale.
What was so very hard for me was in fact a combination of several factors: The seemingly endless number of days ahead of us, the sheer monotony (there were days and days and days when we saw NOTHING except that seething ocean), the constant vigilance and therefore a constant, under-lying stress that something could go wrong and the never-ending fight to stay balanced on the heaving ‘bronco’ that Taka Trois had become and even the smallest tasks were exasperating and exhausting (to get an idea of the movement and the swells have a look at the slideshow below). This was all highly amplified by serious sleep deprivation which has always been a bête noire for me personally. We never got more than 6 hours of sleep at a stretch (if that) and although we took every opportunity to nap during the day, the lack of continuous sleep eventually took a toll on our mental outlook. Every three days or so for me, I could feel my spirits plummeting and it was only the kindness of my shipmates and my faith that kept me going.
Little things kept us going. Seeing flying fish, the occasional bird, a rainbow, shooting stars, VHF contact with one or two other boats and our little daily rituals. The highlights of the trip for me were leaving Cap Verde, crossing paths mid-Atlantic with Bizim, another sailboat on its way the the Caribbean who we will hopefully meet up with in St. Martin in a few weeks to share photographs, seeing the Killer Whale (twice), incredible sunrises and sunsets and of course arriving here in Antigua.
Highlights of the Trip:
Would I do it again? Nope. Once was enough. Crossing the Atlantic for me was not really about the challenge of crossing, but more of a means of getting our boat to the Caribbean. Nevertheless, I am in awe of that fact that we did it and call it pride, but I am so enjoying seeing people’s reactions when we tell them that we crossed the Atlantic Ocean on our sailboat. It’s HUGE and it will take a long time and perhaps a few rum punches to digest the enormity of it all.
Thanks goes first to God for His protection and guidance throughout, but also to you dear friends and family, for your continuous support through prayers and encouraging messages. Knowing that you were following us on that precious ‘yellow brick’ felt like an extra boost of wind in our sails and we were very grateful for it. Thank you.
The following is a slideshow of Shelagh and my mother's photos from our arrival at the Catamaran Marina, Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. What a joyous occasion!
Thanks goes first to God for His protection and guidance throughout, but also to you dear friends and family, for your continuous support through prayers and encouraging messages. Knowing that you were following us on that precious ‘yellow brick’ felt like an extra boost of wind in our sails and we were very grateful for it. Thank you.
The following is a slideshow of Shelagh and my mother's photos from our arrival at the Catamaran Marina, Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. What a joyous occasion!
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