timetravelers

from Paducah Life Magazine - June/July 2023

Last word the

Along with being a great sailor, Tim is also a capable writer. He consistently shares his reflections while sailing on the Queen’s Dream on his website www.svqueensdream.com. Here we’ve shared an excerpt from his Atlantic crossing travelogue.

Our modern lives are ruled by time. Our lives evolve around clocks, calendars, and the appointments of life. We move forward through the continued sequence of existence and events that occur in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. What if that is removed? What if time is only measured by the sunrise and the sunset? It loses meaning and importance. Such is time at sea.

Queen’s Dream has been at sea for 31 days (4,000+ miles). A known fact by examining the detailed written logs sourced by our modern devices on board. Then, the simple math of what day it is and what day the passage began. We measured time—we moved forward. The location tracker shows a thin line slowly creeping across the blue graphic of the Atlantic Ocean. However, the daily life on board QD is measured only by the timing of crew shift changes (watches). Time has lost meaning (and importance). The steady, unending cadence of moving the boat forward (in the right direction) is the driving focus every minute of the day. The sun comes up, the sun goes down, the night sky fills with stars. The only changing visible variable is the moon as it morphs through all its phases and the subtle night by night change of the position of the bright planets.

experience,” Tim explains. “It was hard work, but we were immediately addicted.” They later signed up for sailing school in the Caribbean and what they thought would be a vacation ended up being a week of bootcamp. But the experience gave them nautical confidence, certification as captains, and a dream to travel the oceans of the world.

The QD crew blinks and it is another day, we blink again, and it is another week, blink—another month on the calendar. We are time travelers . . . moving forward towards an uncertain date. Unlike some of the nautical explorers of old, at least we move towards a known destination. Once the passage is complete, time will become particularly important again. Until then, we treasure the absence of time ruling our lives. Gaze into the never-ending blue water and breathe deep into an experience very few will ever have. How do you measure that?

The Kopischkes began taking trips to the Caribbean and renting boats to sail through the turquoise waters. Their skills grew, their boat tastes refined, and their rentals became a little more complex. In 2014, they decided to attend a boat show in Miami. The more they looked, the more excited they got, and what seemed to be a little farfetched started looking like reality. “Walking into that first boat show was a little overwhelming,” said Leanne, “but it started a vision. In 2015 we started evolving that vision by outlining what steps we needed to make financially to really make this happen.”

In 2016, their plans formalized. The couple investigated used yachts, but, like the used car market in 2020, the prices were outrageously inflated. Once they realized the wait for a used boat could be endless, they decided . . . to build one. “I never had plans to do anything but the Caribbean,” Tim notes, “but The Queen (Leanne) wanted to go all over the world.” To tackle this level of adventure, the boat would need to do more than sail in calm waters—it needed to perform well in what sailors call “blue water” or the open ocean.

After investigating the handful of manufacturers who build blue water catamarans, they signed a contract in 2021 with a French manufacturer. Fountaine Pajot took them on a tour of their facility and demonstrated each step of the building process. Because several things vary between European and American systems and the couple wanted to build it with as many eco-friendly elements as possible, the boat would ultimately be finished in Fort Lauderdale.

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That didn’t mean it wouldn’t be seaworthy when it left La Rochelle. The factory built the boat to sail; Fort Lauderdale would simply add customizations. It was finally time to pick up Queen’s Dream in France. Upon arrival, Tim penned the following.

“Her hulls have been in the water for a few weeks, and her systems are nearing full completion. As we stepped onto her from the dock, the reality was thick in the chilly salt air. This time we were not just visiting again to check on the progress—this time we were staying! The second largest ocean in the world awaits a crossing. Three full days of preparations, system adjustments and continuous provisioning runs have QD almost ready to leave her European birth home and point her bow at the open sea horizon. There has been little time to invest in the pondering apprehension that built up to this point. A few remaining tasks need to be completed and then . . . It’s Game Time!”

The Atlantic Crossing

Because this was a maiden voyage across the Atlantic, the Kopischkes hired experienced captains Anthony Richards from London and Jerry Elliot from Fort Pierce, Florida to join the crew. The crew took sixhour shifts rotating roles between cooking and navigation to cleaning and a shift for sleep. Because a lithium-battery bank and generator had not yet been installed they had no heat, and because it’s common practice that the back doors must stay open, a large part of the journey was wet, cold, and not incredibly comfortable. With 40+ days of food provisions, they packed sparsely: each crew member had a blanket, pillow, and one set of eating utensils, and only the essentials for the crossing.

Surprisingly they had high speed Internet for the entire trip! An exploratory Starlink satellite dish solution let them stay in touch with civilization and share their experiences and location with friends back home. There were days on end where they saw nothing but ocean (16 days in a row once) and days where they had scares, like running into a pod of humpback whales. Their speed at the mercy of the wind, they traveled at about the pace of a brisk walk, giving them time to garner new perspectives on life and the uncharted expanse of the universe.

“The Atlantic crossing was mind boggling,” Tim notes. “People who sail in offshore Bluewater understand how tiny we are in comparison to the vast world around us, and those who attempt a Transatlantic crossing on a small vessel get that experience on an even grander scale. 46 days and 5,676 miles after leaving the dock in the boat’s birthplace of La Rochelle, France, the Kopischkes set foot on the docks in Ft. Lauderdale.

Destination: Everywhere

Despite the fact that Paducah is listed with the U.S. Coast Guard as the boat’s home port, Queen’s Dream isn’t ever intended to see river water. In April, the Kopischkes held an official christening for the boat in Fort Lauderdale. In a classic nautical ceremony, they toasted their journey and poured highend liquor over the boat bows, a symbolic gesture that invokes the favor of the sea gods to provide safe passage. They then set out on the second stage of their planned voyages, which takes Queen’s Dream from Fort Lauderdale to Grenada, casually working her way around tropical islands and warmer waters for the duration of this tour.

They are now the sole captains of their ship leaning heavily into the symbolism of the boat’s name—a nod to their mutual experience in chasing Leanne’s dream (the queen) to sail it around the world. This husband and wife sailing team is not looking to dock stateside for four to five years as they explore the world.

Their advice for adventure seeking hopefuls? “I never give advice,” Tim notes. “But I can give observations. You don’t have to wait until you’re retired to find adventure. We were adventurers and embraced life long before this. We were committed to successful careers that put us in a place that we could eventually do it on a grand scale; one we would have never imagined when we were younger. It’s an evolution that we’ve worked toward.”

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