Simpler Times...

So, this picture was taken just south of Georges Bank after a handful of warm beautiful sunny days. We thought we were about one or two days shy of being able to start adding north to our course to make a quick run to the English Channel.

I used Herb Hilgenberg for weather routing. What an amazing fellow. If I had money I would love to set up a foundation to ensure that a service such as his will be around for many many years. For those of you not familiar with him check out his web site. http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/vax498.htm. He is an amazingly dedicated fellow, and fun to chat with too.

It was about the time this was taken that we first heard the term "Hurricane Bertha" in relation to us. It was just a passing comment about how we might need to talk about it some the following day. The word hurricane sure can take the shine off of a beautiful day like the one above. The next day chatting with Herb it was not going to be a problem for us, but.. then again... it might.

This uncertainty went on for about 5 days until an extra-topical depression formed above us and started tracking south. Eeeks....

Next thing we knew we were being advised to head due south for the next 24 hours. ouch. We found our selves about 200 miles from Flores in the Azores before the discussion about heading north again came up. At this time the wind was light and from the north east. Ouch again.

All the while we were thinking that we were just a day or two from getting to add north to our course. This went on for about a week.

Then we sat. Once that system passed we were left in a vacuum. No wind. Flat seas. We did see an amazing astronomical event though. As the sun set, the moon rose at the exact same time. So we had both a full moon and an full sun in the sky just above the horizon for a good amount of time. I started to think about Andrei Tarkovsky's movie Solaris. Anyway, we ended up doing the only real motoring in the crossing, about 24 hours NE to get into some wind.

The Crew for the Crossing

From left to right: Liam Doyle, Andrew Smith, Rusty, Sylvain Allard.
The original plan was that Kerry (my wife) and Zelma (my daughter) were to come along as crew. This didn't work out for a handful of reasons, the prime being havening trouble figuring out what to do with the house we were leaving.

So with a month to go before departure I had to scramble to kept it from being just Rusty and I.

Rusty it turns out can keep a pretty good watch for being a dog. He'll bark at freighters and fishing boats and if they happen to be up wind, you'll get plenty of notice. He also wont drink the good scotch.

I found Liam via Crewseekers International. He has his YRA Yacht Masters and was looking for miles to obtain is Ocean Yacht Masters. I sure lucked out with him. Not only can he easily handle the day today of delivery work, he is a good cook and great company. He is looking to make a living doing this kind of work. If your looking for crew, I highly recommend him. His long term dream is to have a charter boat in Hebrides and provide tours of Single Malt Scotch distilleries( no, he wont drink your good scotch with out it being offered).

Silvan came to us via a crew wanted add posted on Sailing Anarchy. In the end I wasn't clear what Silvain was hoping to gain from the experience though he was fond of a pirate head scarf. I was certainly glad for the additional sleep having two other humans provided.

On your mark...

This is a shot of dandelion on the launch from CIYC with our last load of gear before heading off to France. She has not been this clean since... A lot has happened this summer and I had every notion to keep up with this blog thing but what I learned is something I already knew (I have been doing a lot of that type of leaning this fall), I don't really like writing. But, as I started to dig through the summer’s pictures I realized that I am going to forget the details. S0, I'll try and back step through the trip so far. Oh, Another re-learned bit is that living on a boat is a lot of work. What I didn’t understand is how much work adding a 1 year old to the mix would be.

Rusty and Zelma?

Hey Andrew,

You need to set up a profile for Rusty and Zelma too! After all you have Rusty's photo on the screen that comes up. On another note, I am at Cynthia Widener's. If you have an idea of a design for boat cards let me know and I can get her to set us up with a bunch.

Love, Kerry and Zelma

Haven't had much time for this lately. We are the in water and things a looking pretty good.

I'll have more once we get out of the house...

Fuel Tank

This may be helpful to owner of another Stevens 40.
Our fuel tank started to leak and needed replacement. No small job and the set of plans I have are no were near detailed enough to figure out where to make the incisions. I figured it out after much poking around with an old stainless VHF whip and measuring. These photos sure would have been handy.

Getting Started

Well, spring is pretty much here and its time to put away the tools from the winters projects, SSB (Icom m802), Heater (Dickenson Alaska), and a Hydrovane, put the unfinished projects on hold and start waxing, sanding and painting.

Planning on a June departure to Cherbourg.

Jeff Lazar just finished replacing standing rigging and I'll be picking up new lifelines next week.

Much to do.