Atlantic High

Credit for the title to William F. Buckley who wrote an enjoyable little book about his sailing called “Atlantic High”.

We bought Shearwater 7 months ago.  She is in Annapolis, MD.  We live in Madrid, Spain.  We really like living in Europe.  It would be great if Shearwater was over here in Europe with us.  We could sail the Med!  Sail the Baltic Sea!  Visit Ireland & Scotland!  So many interesting places to visit.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  I think so too.

There are really two ways to get a 40’ sailboat from the US East Coast to Europe.  Put our boat on a big ship specially designed to carry boats, like those operated by Dockwise Transport, or sail her across on her own bottom.  We could ship the boat, but it is costly, and frankly not very interesting.  Or we could spend some of the cost of shipping on upgrades to the boat that we would want eventually anyway, take advantage of the generous vacation allotments given to workers in Europe, and sail her here.  After 7 months of thinking, something like 1000 hours of planning and preparing, 3 weeks of projects, 30 hours of sailing, 2 weeks of reviewing our progress and working up the remaining to do list we have come to a decision.  Chris & I have decided to jump in the deep end and sail across the pond in July.  Our one way tickets from Madrid to the East Coast have been purchased ($34.70 each – thank you frequent flyer miles)!

We bought Shearwater to sail and to see the world, and an Atlantic Crossing is all that.

The Plan

Four weeks from tomorrow Chris arrives in Philadelphia.  She’ll spend a day with her mom and John in New Jersey and pick up the mass of stuff we’ve ordered (again), then spend almost 2 weeks in Annapolis prepping Shearwater for the ocean.  I arrive in 6 weeks and sometime in the first week of July we hope to depart Annapolis bound for the Azores, about two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic (~2200 nm).  We’ll spend a few days in Horta, Azores and then cast off for a place as yet to be determined along the Iberian Coast (Northwest Spain or Portugal), another 800 nm give or take.  All in all, the trip should take around 20 days, 13 days or so to the Azores and 6 or 7 days to Iberia.  Yes, that means the two of us will sail for 13 days straight taking turns being on watch and sleeping, 24 hours a day, day after day, just us, the boat, and the ocean (and then another 6-7 days to Iberia).  Of course, the crossing times are just rough guesstimates based on how our boat sails, the average winds during July, and the distance.  Weather is chaotic, and the wind is our gas pedal, so we’ll move along at whatever speed the wind allows.

What now?  Right now, we are up to our ears in lists, researching products, buying safety gear, and planning for the crossing.  We’ve divided the tasks up into 12 categories, with each of us taking primary responsibility for 6.  Chris is managing the planning, purchasing, and installation of things related to Provisioning/Life-on-Board,  Health, Safety, Plumbing Systems, and Sails & Rigging.  Justin is managing preparations related to Electronics & Electrical Systems, Navigation, Weather, Communications, and the Engine.  The list for this is almost 10 single-spaced pages long.  Most of the key items have been purchased.  In the next few days we’ll finish off the big stuff with ordering a liferaft that we don’t intend to use, a satellite phone for receiving weather information, email, and for emergencies, and a solar panel for charging the batteries.

The Dream

That’s the “project management” side of this adventure, but what about the “adventure” part?  What about the sunrises at the sea?  Surfing down a long swell?  Seeing every star in the night sky light up like a beacon?  Or how about sighting land, a remote island rising up above the waves, in the middle of a vast ocean, after two weeks at sea?  That’s why we do this.  It’s a big challenge, that can bring with it huge rewards, things you don’t find during your day-to-day living on land.

When I was younger I thought my first ocean crossing would be sailing to Hawaii.  Being from the West Coast, Hawaii is the end of the rainbow.  Hawaii is that tropical paradise, close enough to be real, but far enough away to be a challenge.  The Atlantic, I didn’t know much about.  It was over there.  Behind us.  Well, I’ve been on a crash course to learn about the Atlantic lately and it’s a complex place with the infamous Gulf Stream influencing the wind, the waves, the temperature, even the color of the water.   It also conveniently has the Azores, a little known outpost of Portugal, right in our path to Europe.  The Azores are my Atlantic Hawaii, interestingly, almost exactly the same distance from the US East Coast as Hawaii is from the US West Coast.

Normally, I would say I can’t wait for this adventure to begin, like a kid awaiting summer vacation, but in this case the project/adventure/challenge is so big that it feels like it has already begun.