My notes about the trip
Brest-San Francisco: Sailing with my Beneteau Oceanis 370
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WHO AM I ?
* Fench man who came to america in 98 to work
* lived in the country-side north of Paris
* 30 years old
* Never liked sailing (my father has a 18 footer)
* only nightmare was a big wave hiding the sun and crashing on us
* was working in software
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HOW DID THE PROJECT STARTED ?
* Intuition
* Was walking next to the piers
* Perfect day
* Colors/Sounds perfect
* "My life needs to go thru that"
* Family/friends discouraged me, my gf got scared
* Learned at OCSC, plus a week of no-sailing class in France
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WHAT WAS THE PROJECT ?
* very vague at first (alone ?)
* Going from France to San Francisco where Marcy lives
* End up being 10000 Miles, 11 Months, 36 footer, 2 person
* Visited 10 Countries : France, Spain, Portugal, Martinique, St Lucie, Grenada, Panama, Cost Rica, Mexico, USA
* Goals: 1) Be best friend at the end of the trip
2) Arrive to San Francisco
3) Be good sailors
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
* How to know how long it will take ? get a map
* How many miles a day ? 5 knt -> 120 Miles
* How to plan a trip (storms etc) -> Read the book from Jimmy Cornell: Cruising Routes
* Same route as Colombus
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THE BOAT:
* Beneteau Oceanis 370 (37 feet)
* Sloop, furling mainsail, short draft
* Engine Volvo 28 HP
* Sleeps 7 people
* Has full set of sails (plus spare jib!)
* Door and shower to rince and clean fishes !
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
* How to choose a boat -> feel good inside, big enough -> Dance/Disco
* Best is to buy the book from Nigel Calder "Cruising handbook:
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MY CREW/CO-CAPTAIN:
* best friend
* never sailed before too
* good match cause he is a physical therapist, so he will handle the medical side
* decided that we share the role of captain: one leg I will be captain (ie, taking the lead on
daily boat inspection, weather report, make route choice, keeping ETA up to date,
etc). Worked great, avoided frustrations.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
* Who to go with ? -> not sure. Saw some friends break up, obviously though it helps to go
with somebody you know. With William, I knew I could count on him during rough time !
* Rules: the success of our trip (going two friends and still be best friends) was that we made a ton
of rules:
list of accepted reasons why we would bail of
who would cook and when: we had a whole procedure for the food to avoid problems
(menu, cleaning, etc)
who would kill the fish
shifts so we have even time of sun rise and falls
specific rules about the baot: who would pay what when
Will we take guests ?
Had cabin of equal sizes
Share work: it was not MY boat anymore but ours
=> We saw problems on other boats:
* crew challenging the captain (Maurice/Eric)
* captain who thinks the captains must be treated as a god (there is a limit to that)
* people who thought friendship will solve everything (but money became an issue)
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COMMUNICATION:
* Not a lot.
* Could hear SSB but not respond (fine)
* Could not read emails
BUT:
* with the VHF, we talked to cargos, got radar scan, got weather report !
* with the VHF, we talked to other boats, some called our families !
* with the Radio, we had a daily forecast, could hear world news
* Updated our web site on land, write emails in boat and send them in batch once on land
* check the weather in cybercafe
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT THAT PHOTO:
* on the VHF outside cause there is probably a strong weather I need to steer => handheld VHF !!
* We are still fishing. The fishing line goes up not to go into the Aquagen
* We wear harness 24/7
* Note the good clothes: never cold, always dry ! Good gloves too. The GPS is next to the Helm
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NAVIGATION:
* Autopilot so we don't steer
* 2 GPS so we don't need to learn celestial navigation
* 2 VFH so we can talk to other boats for weather etc (some cargos for weather, other boat for phone)
* 2 Radios to listen to different AM radio for weather report and Nets
* sailing lights: not all the time !
* Compass
* World maps on a laptop
* Book about stars (nothing fancy)
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
* When you should go ? => when winds are pushing and AND there is no storm AND when the moon is getting full
* Do we put the lights on all the time ? => No. In fact we would have loved to have a switch on the deck.
* very important to get the weather on land before we go (internet -> buoyweather.com)
* can get information once underway (thanks to the net or public services)
* having a top of the line autopilot is VERY important, you need to take breaks from steering => we did not steer
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WEATHER:
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
How will we know if a storm is going to burst ?
=> weather predictions are really good, up to 7 days !
=> We checked internet before leaving
=> listen to the radio
=> checked the air-pressure (Barometer ?) every 3 hours
(if it drops more than 10 hectoPascal in 6 hours, winds of force 8)
=> Worse case is if there is a storm close the coast.
=> Boat is safe in a storm
=> looking for weird sign such a swell
=> Skalls: 1st one: barely had time to avoid a jibe, all wet
2nd: had time to reduce sails, but not time to bring my books inside
3rd: time to bring my books inside, close windows and wear jackets
=> One storm: winds shifted 360 !
=> now I know where the Lows and High are and how they move in the
northern atmosphere. Lots to learn, but I have a general good understanding
=> Listen to the nets 8122 (???) Don summer passage ?
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NEXT TRIP
See slide
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10-maintenance-bottomPaint.jpg $1600 ??
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REPARATION:
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
* electricity: windlass XXX, fuses, mast->keel
* computer hard drive (backup !!!!)Why do poeple always allocate time to repair ? (see pix)
TOOLS: * ALL cheap tools died of rust
* Did not have everything when we left, no big deal
Learnt about electrolysis (Aluminium, zinc)
ALL quality stuff lived up (very few exceptions)
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WHAT WENT BAD:
QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
* How do we get electricity ? Do we need to run the engine often ?
=> we answered this one too late ... But it was good in a way. We
left with old batteries and only the engine. It let us 2 months to think
about was the best
* We did not go for the wind generator cause we should go 80% downwind
and hope that our anchorage are not too windy.
* Not enough Solar Panel: no shade, 90deg from the sun ray, fragile !!!!
* Hydrogenerator Aquagen
* NO AMPEREMETER : BAD: We did not know what we were spending NOR gaining ...
No ampermeter. Kind of bening electricity blind ! ($300)
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WHAT WENT WRONG:
* We could have had weatherChart with our computer and a simple radio
but we never spend the time for that ....
* in Panama, we had to spend quite some time to get some maps, zinc
and oil filter. That was stupid, we should have bought some long
time ago ....
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WHAT WENT WRONG:
* lost between 0.5/0.8kts -> day: 12/19 Miles
-> Atlantic: 312/499Miles -> 4 days !!!!!
=> after we cleaned our hull everytime. Was fun, water was hot.
Allows to clean the water intake
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WHAT WENT WRONG:
* Did not know we had to get a visa for the US (just need a waiver
when you come in a plane)
* bad experience with the customs on that misunderstanding
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WHAT WENT WRONG:
* Solutions: Have a common account!!! We did not think about it
* Complexity: what's personal? Which currency (currency changes
quick ...).
* Bills are transparent....
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WHAT WENT GOOD:
* We are still best friends !
* Best man for my wedding
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WHAT WENT GOOD:
* We took this bet for energy and it was great:
- produce enough for the autopilot + lamps + fridge when
we were moving fast
- people say you loose .5kts (we wanted to try during Panama, but
not possible because we would have stayed one more night (and pay))
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WHAT WENT GOOD:
* always had enough food
* bouyweather was great. We used to spend time to find our information
* We were very comfortable driving the boat
* We spent some time doing our waypoints together before leaving,
avoiding shallow patches (26m in 2 days from Portugal) and have
a good estimate of Arrival Time
* very good log book: every 2 hours almost
* GPS gave us some very good info such as tide, moonrise, UTC+XX hours, voltage
loch
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THINGS TO DO BEFORE:
* We struggle to find some flags !
* No Panama flags in Martinique, nor in grenada !!
* Flags are very important ! When crossing Panama canal, the employee
will call you thru the radio to let you know their flag is upside down
* Study Pilot Charts !
* "Business cards" You'll make a lot of friends
* choose your knife, get used to it
* choose your headlamp, get used to it
* music: mp3 player
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THINGS TO DO BEFORE:
* We spent some time trying to find T-Shirts in Mexico to give to
our new friends.
* For some reasons, we really like wearing our FoLaLieR hat.
* You need a logo for your web site
for the painting on the wall. Maybe buy some paint equipment before
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THINGS TO DO BEFORE:
* You can train at home before to get the correct setting and the
updated list and time depending of your location !
* It's worth noting that it seems that everybody will just be dying helping
you
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THINGS TO DO BEFORE:
* You don't want to rely on online tools, your time in the cybercafe
is precious: Not only it's expensive, but there are a lot of people
waiting
Advise:
- set your email account to be read by outlook so you can write
and read your email offline
- Learn to use the offline feature of Internet Explorer 6
- Pratice your web site building beforehand
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FAQ:
* starboard cabin because of the wind and more shade (facing north!)
-> High is turning clockwise
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FAQ:
* every arrival, we cleaned the boat. Quite some work
* You want to boat to be perfect so you can trace any problem
* Cleaned the engine at every port, oil changed every 100 hours
* No paper in the toilet -> Plastic bags
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FAQ:
* bought for $1200
* sill had food in San Francisco
* Got a lot of water, did not calculate the milk, orange juice, juice
from food, so we arrived with a lot of water (3L/day ???)
* fruits lasted for 14 days
* remove the paper for cockroaches ! (no shoes ???)
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FAQ:
* Worse. no wind = no energy = no food = heat = rocky !
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FAQ:
* maximum we had was 45-50 relative winds toward Panama: scary fun
* weather forecast helps you
* read some books about it
* dead wind is good, feel good, boat is flat !
* When wind was strong, we had to steer manually.
* only DANGEROUS part is INSIDE the boat (and close to the shore)!!!!!
* We learned what tide rips were ... and Kelp ....
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FAQ:
* Awesome trick: put your trash in your 3 Gallon bottle !
else smells is horrible, takes a LOT of space !
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FAQ:
* Very anxious at first
* 200 boats race to start with. Very impressing. Once you are out there
you meet almost no boat !
* DANGEROUS: when a cargo ship goes between you and a city: impossible
to know which light is which. Got scared in the Canaries
* MOON STATE IS SO IMPORTANT. Our GPS told us when she goes to
sleep etc. Very important.
* To check for boat: We would do a quick 360, then a slow one
with Binocular. We caught most of the boat with the binocular
* When you are very tired: I used to play quick video games (Tetris
and other) to wake me up
* Have a head lamp
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FAQ:
* shift of 3.5 hours
allows us to see the sunset and the other guy the sun rise
make 2 shifts + 1 for the night and vice versa next day
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SAILING:
* We did not use the wind indicator. We put some clothe on the shrouds
and got used to that (also wind in our neck).
* Constraints are different: comfort of the sleeping crew, material
* learned a lot: spi to butterfly sailing to balancing the boat
* used telltale all the time
* sometimes try to move the weight in our boat to optimize it (Ellen McArthur)
* OCSC:
* you are a very good sailor
* the procedural way of learning is awesome: we applied the "logic"
behind the procedure to come with our own
* we never panicked nor got "scared"
* a cool membership feature: share anchorage and route by OCSC members
* advanced sailing was awesome: once we had no engine (diesel), had to anchored
with the wind only, did great ! (lots of boats, current, shifting winds)
but so was BK, and BC. Bareboat was
great for the confidence, especially in port maneuvers: great port
departure builds confidence !
* Man over board is somehow overemphasized in US sailing: while it's a
very good exercise, for offshore cruising, it won't help you with
a bigger boat if you don't have spare crew. Focus on "don't fall"
* we met 2 guys crying of fear ! (young guys) cause they sailed a lot
but were not ready (->Lindsay was an awesome teatcher)
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Piece of advise:
always check weather !
we never left on a friday
bring champagne for your first 1000Miles
go with another boat (games, pirates, watch)
Go, you will not be ready, relax
Playboy in life raft, important for the morale :-)
Go and swim and say hello to boat at anchorage! Best advice
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Other topics not covered:
The animals we met
Typical departure
Fishing
Budget
managed Risk
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Divers: (extra time)
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Things to bring:
Maps
Journal de bord
Procedure thing
Knife ??