Very Low Budget Atlantic Crossing

[atlantical]

Every run took longer than expected, but the last one, Bermuda to the UK, took 57 days, that was just to Castlebay Island of Barra, I still had to get to the mainland. I had predicted, 30-35 days, I didn't know it at the time, but somehow the anti fouling didn't work, and goose neck mussels had attached themselves to the underside in Bermuda, which was why I couldn't get the speed. I had also by then lost my second fore sail, so I was down to sloop rig, and not cutter. Another problem was, I hadn't re rigged the standing rig, it was circa 1981, the swedges were brown, the wires had brown all over them, and I was frightened that if I put too much strain on the rig, I would lose the mast.

I was completely out of water for a couple of days, and had to build a still, I did that using a zig water bottle, some hose pipe, and a big water bottle, the type you put on a water cooler in an office, I used that for a condenser, opened up the bilge, and kept wetting it with bilge water to cool the steam. I didn't realize how quickly the hose would heat up with the steam, it took a long time to get just half a pint of water, and I was burning the inside of the boat in the log burner, just to boil the water, it was not sustainable, as there was not enough wood inside the boat, my MF/HF was no longer transmitting, it just received, so I popped the epirb, and about 24 hours later, the tanker Cue ball, or Qball turned up. I had everything go wrong, nothing was planed, I didn't bother about weather, I just went through it, and hoped the boat would survive, which it did.

I didn't really take photos, i took some with a camera phone on the inland waterway, but the battery on that phone exploded when moisture got to it, I think the photos may be recoverable though. All ;my electronics packed up, the last thing to go was the solar controller, that went on a mooring in Fairlie scotland, just after I arrived, and that was the bilge pump gone, the alternator had gone a long time before that, and been replaced by a car alternator from the dump in Bermuda, then that went, it corroded and fell apart. A lot of the papers I had got ruined, even the soles fell off my trainers, the rivets on my levi jeans corroded and fell off, and some zips such as on my ruck sack, have never moved since. It took a huge tole on everything, I constantly had water coming in, I was always hungry, I lost a lot of weight, I was living on coco nuts at one point, and don't ever do that, its ok going in, very bad coming out. First thing I did when I got to the uk, was ask the church for some food, (i had no money) then went to see a doctor NHS its all free.

[Cormorant]

Wow.

How about navigation -- did you have a GPS?

[atlantical]

The voyage was just bad, only reason I left the USA when I did, was I got stopped driving a moped while drunk, blew a point 26, and the judge threw the book at me, which included a years probation (unsupervised) and a six month suspended sentence,so I took off, heading for the Azores, but bust the bob stay, and had to go to Bermuda, I was badly prepared, I had next to no money, not enough food to get me to the UK, and no money to buy more on route, I had no life raft, and if it wasn't for Tom Broadfoot, in Willmington, I wouldn't have had any sort of inflatable, he gave me an inflatable canoe, which was great until it got stolen in Bermuda, but strangely couple of days after it got stolen, a dinghy was dumped in the skip next to the fishing boat I hung out on.

In Bermuda they ran a book on me reaching scotland, someone who had become a good friend lost $20 he bet I would be picked up at sea. I made it through pure determination, and the boat has been out of the water since, sitting on the hard at Fairlie quay marina, its only really in the last year and a half that I have become serious about fixing it up and going back out on her. It looked just too much of a project when I got here, even largs marina, wouldn't let me stay unless I paid every day, and I was having to borrow to pay them, they wouldn't give me credit, they told me they had too many abandoned boats already.

[atlantical]

I had a hand held garmin GPS, I also had a sextant, and a set of tables, I had no charts for anywhere, but I had two atlantic pilot guides, the one I bought which was an RYA one, which wasn't that good, Tom Broadfoot, gave me another one, that was great, it covered everywhere for St Johns Nova Scotia, To Cambeltown scotland, the french coast, the english coast, the usa, florida, the caribean, gave great directions for getting into falmouth harbour antigua, I already had been into Bermuda, but it gave great directions for that.

In Bermuda, I went to the seamans mission, explained my situation, showed them my seamans discharge book (merchant navy) they gave me eighty dollars, and sent me to chandelers in Hamilton, they had phoned ahead, and aranged for me to get photo copies of charts of places I may go, she had to be kind of quick though, because she told me the boss would be back soon, and she didn't want him to see.

The light on my compass packed up mid atlantic, so as night came, I would fix on a star, and steer to that, it was though just a case of going east, as I only had auto tiller which took too much power, so I would set the sails, and go in an easterly direction, as close to the direction I wanted as I could get. The variation on the compass got worse and worse as i got towards the middle of the atlantic, it was maybe as much as 20 degrees, I only figured it out, because I seemed to be steering at a different angle to the rising sun, I knew the sun was going north, but it wasn't going that much every day, it was just another confusing thing I didn't know about.

[atlantical]

I did have a great experience, things you couldn't buy, I pulled the anchor line one night in Bermuda and I have never seen fosforesence like that, every time i squeezed the warp, light just came out from between my fingers, the warp looked like a neon light tube. I had dolphins and whales swimming next to me, (whales were frightening) I met some great people that didn't care that I had no money, and I still write to one person. I had a great year, but it was hard too, going hungry, no washing, thirsty, wet and cold and often very tired.

[atlantical]

Being ex merchant navy, I knew it wasn't that unusual for one ship to ask another for supplies at sea, we had people coming alongside to get sugar, we stopped and swapped cases of beer to a fishing boat, for bags of prawns, swapped vidioes at sea with other ships. on one ship in the north sea, small support vessel, we let some yachties come on board get a shower and a meal, we just kept there boat off the stern, as we were stationary.

Yachts people though, don't usually ask, they tend to be very self sufficient, or go without. Did once though launch a boat from Fishery Protection vessel Vigilant, to recover a french yacht that drifted with its anchor down, we also then picked up the skipper, who was frantically rowing after it.

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by atlantical

...got some replies ridiculing me...I said "boat 8500 dollars, re fit 3000 dollars, food 200 dollars, crossing the Atlantic from west to east on my own...I felt I was being accused of lying...

Congratulations on making it, I take something of a give-it-a-lash/she'll be right approach to life myself; though from reading your subsequent posts, it would appear that those naysayers whom you seem to resent so strongly were generally correct in their ridicule of your plan/budget.
It sounds as if rather than achieving your goal 'on my own' you have relied and continue to rely heavily upon the generosity of individuals, organisations and businesses to take up the shortfall in your budget. It also reads as if your crossing were achieved despite a distinct lack of planning, preparation and ability, so its perhaps only good fortunes that enabled you to make/survive a far from 'safe' crossing of the ocean, without also having to fall back on the resources of the sea-rescue services too.

[atlantical]

You are of course very correct, only thing I can argue with you about, is I had every tool aboard I could need, I even had two paslode nail guns, which one did get used to fix a broken tiller. I take from the bible, "god feeds the birds, we are much more important than the birds, god will feed us" talking about birds, I did try to shoot lots of them (only for food) but trying to hit a seagull with a 30 06 is very difficult, and I didn't manage it.

No one passes through life without the help of others, so I am not afraid to ask, given the right circumstances, just as I will give others help, I stopped my car once to get a woman out of a crashed car in the river, she didn't ask for my help, but she got it, maybe people of a different attitude, would just drive past.

Yes there was a lot of luck involved. I was in Bermuda when the Blue Pearls luck ran out, the crew got brought back to Bermuda on a tanker, they lost everything, the Bermuda yacht club had a whip round for them, to buy them clothes, one Bermudan gave them a couple of thousand dollars each, I left maybe a week after that, then the other boat, it was behind me, four experienced me onboard, they ran out of luck when there keel came off, (the very reason I bough a full keel boat it cant come off) i only heard about that when I phoned my cousin from the Islay (scotland) life boat station, my cousin thought I had picked up a crew in Bermuda, as she had heard about that boat. The case was going on recently against the owners, the only tools the crew had were leathermen.

Being an ex merchant seaman, I know that an awful lot of it is luck, rather than good judgement, if you never take a chance, you will spend your life in dock, even the most well found ships have gone down in a storm, and you can plan an atlantic crossing for years, take every bit of kit you can think of, then hit a floating container and go down before you even get out of your bunk.

If it was extremely easy, everyone would do it, I wouldn't though, because there would be no challenge.

I see fifty foot Benetaus that have never been out of the clyde, the furthest they go is from Largs marina to Rothsay, and they switch the plotter on to do that, even though they can see there destination from there departure point, but to pay for the boat, they have to take work seriously, they may get to enjoy it when they retire, or they may feel they are by then too old.

[hellosailor]

Most authors remember the TITLE of their book.
" Troubles with Tribulation" just doesn't exist.
"The Troubles of Tribulation" is listed for sale on Amazon.

One can be bought, the other can't.

[keith4001r]

To the OP, congrats on making it and still being alive.

[Mambo]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Most authors remember the TITLE of their book.
" Troubles with Tribulation" just doesn't exist.
"The Troubles of Tribulation" is listed for sale on Amazon.

One can be bought, the other can't.

How one gets 12000+ posts on CF . . .

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Mambo

How one gets 12000+ posts on CF . . .

Hmmm.... also how one gets 437 posts...

Jim

[keith4001r]

Wow. Can we get any more petty?
The guy did a transatlantic crossing and he's ridiculed for being a bad speller? And others have to throw a punch just to get in there?

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by keith4001r

Wow. Can we get any more petty?
The guy did a transatlantic crossing and he's ridiculed for being a bad speller? And others have to throw a punch just to get in there?

I'm a little unclear what we are supposed to learn from this intrepid sailor.

[ahun]

Good story. Sounds like sailing.