Marina Zar-Par
18.25.50N 69.36.67W
THE FOCAL POINT FOR CRUISING YACHTSMEN T
Cape’s Atlantic Crossing:
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY by Sarah Smith
• High Quality Sheltered Moorings • Slips to 120’ with depth 10’ • 70 Ton Travelift (30' beam) • ABYC certified machanics • Shore power 30, 50 and 100 amps • All slips with fingers
• Showers, Laundry, Restaurant, 24 hr security • Immigration office in the marina for clearance • Free WIFI and Free Internet • Dinghy Dock • 12 miles East of Santo Domingo & 7 miles East of International Airport
Bethany and Bryn still smiling: ‘We survived a month at sea with Mum and Dad’
MARCH 2013
CARIBBEAN COMPASS
PAGE 32
Visit: marinazarpar.com email: info@marinazarpar.com Tel: 809 523 5858 VHF Channel 5
Sarah, David, Bethany and Bryn Smith left the UK in 2007 in their 43-foot Gitana, Cape. They explored the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal before spending three seasons in the Mediterranean, and a year in the Canaries — working and homeschooling as they went. This article is an abridged version of the account of their passage from The Gambia to Tobago in March 2012 that was awarded The Qualifier’s Mug by the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) for the most ambitious or arduous qualifying voyage by a new member as submitted for publication in the OCC journal or newsletter in 2012. At the time of their crossing, Bethany was 13 and Bryn was 12, making them the youngest full OCC members. The OCC, the world’s truly global ocean sailing association, exists to encourage long-distance sailing in small boats, and annually recognizes the achievements of ordinary individuals doing extraordinary things on the world’s oceans, and brings those achievements to the attention of the sailing community at large. Every full member has made a 1,000-nautical-mile offshore passage in a vessel of 70 feet or less. For more information visit www.oceancruisingclub.org.
We left Lamin Lodge, Banjul in The Gambia at 1310 hours on February 28th, 2012, and tied up alongside the Coast Guard quay in Scarborough, Tobago at 2320 on March 24th. We took the “scenic route”, heading south a bit (to avoid the Cape Verdes) before turning west. Our passage was 2,753 miles and took us 26 days, 8 hours and 30 minutes. Our speed varied from sailing at eight knots, surfing down waves at ten knots, and bobbing at 0.1 knots; overall, our average speed was 4.3 knots. All of the sailing magazines do a rundown of the highs and lows of each season’s Atlantic crossings. Here’s our version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good • Weather routing: Friends in the UK provided us with weather information and updated our blog position every day; they texted us the weather forecast every morning on the sat phone, and we texted back our midday position. The weather that they arranged for us was fantastic: basically a northeasterly Force 4 or 5 and mainly fair (with the odd patch of Easterly Force 3 and a bit of drizzle, for variety). • The Iridium satellite phone and SSB radio: Having the SSB meant that we were able to contact cruisers in the Caribbean, while the satellite phone meant that we could stay in touch with friends and family in the UK/Ireland. It was good to be able to receive text messages and hear other voices (other than that of your crew) when stuck on a small boat in the middle of a big ocean. • Visual Passage Planner 2: This neat bit of software uses the historical wind, tide and current data found on a routing chart to provide course options for your destination. We chose the weather route, turned off the chart plotter and used a good old paper chart and pencil to plot our course and position until we approached land. • The Aries: The Aries behaved impeccably and held us on course for most of the 26 days of our crossing. It needs quite a bit of wind to work effectively (we used the Autopilot in light winds), but I can now understand why wind steering vanes are held in such high regard. • Solar panels: We had fitted six new solar panels in the Canaries so had oodles of power for the SSB, lights, to charge Kindles and Nintendos, and run the Autopilot. We didn’t use the engine at all for battery charging. • The DuoGen: Whenever we were sailing well we used the DuoGen on tow mode. We are still impressed with this bit of kit five years on and more than 11,000 miles since leaving the UK. • Bethany and Bryn: Bethany and Bryn stood full watches for the whole crossing, so we had a luxurious two hours-on, six hours-off watch system. They stood their watches (including night watches), plotted positions, trimmed sails, took turns being cook for the day, baked bread, carried out rig checks, and did their share of tidying and washing up — despite being really quite seasick at times (it was Day Ten when they stopped throwing up regularly). Bryn was particularly bad — we tried antinausea tablets, wrist bands, various forms of ginger, bland food, liquids only, eating little/eating lots, hand-steering, singing loudly, telling jokes... Considering that we were all cooped up together with no escape for the best part of a month, we got on incredibly well. There were raised voices and choice words from the two big kids a couple of times, but Bethany and Bryn were mature in their approach and didn’t stoop to that low level. They both remained cheerful and positive for the bulk of the trip and in spite of the seasickness. We are delighted and proud to have them as crew as well as kids. • Keeping busy: Non-cruisers always ask how we fill our time on long passages, and imagine that we laze around sunbathing and reading. —Continued on next page