Ep 4 Solo Atlantic Crossing Bermuda to Azores (part 1)
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2022
- In this video I leave beautiful Bermuda and start the long passage across to Horta in the Azores. In part one I get half way across though light airs and stronger winds but all enjoyed with a regular cup of tea!
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For my day-job I run a small business repairing, maintaining and refitting sailing boats (often contessa 32’s due to my long experience with them) I'm mostly in the central Solent area of the UK. Being a cruising and racing sailor with many thousands of inshore and offshore sea miles logged I like to think that I bring a great deal of real world experience to my work and help many new (and not so new) boat owners to improve and maintain their sailing boats. When I'm not fixing boats I also provide some own-boat sail training, help owners with deliveries and provide consultancy services to those that are refitting their own boats for cruising or racing.
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Disclaimer - I hope that viewers both enjoy and learn something from my videos but please remember to take the appropriate precautions for any DIY refit works you undertake with appropriate PPE and the correct tools for the job. If you are in any way unsure as to how to go about a project or are unsure if something on your boat is safe please consult a professional.
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Music used is from Ben sound.com
I’m not a sailor, but I really admire the calm and organised way you approach a passage like this on one of the world’s major oceans. Enjoying your progress 😊
Thanks for the comment, pleased you liked the video.
As a fellow sailboat restorer, sailor and future yacht master, I really enjoy all your videos, sailing and restoring. Would be nice to see your family sometime. Cheers!
Thanks for bringing us along on the first half George. I really enjoy the sail plan info, the weather briefings and your updates on course adjustment. We never get bored of that so keep it coming. It would be interesting to get more info on techniques of flying the spinnaker single handed.
Thanks, at some point I will get some better cameras set up and do a video on solo spinnaker technique.
VHF (relatively short wavelength) is predominantly line of site (although they can refract a little, at the lower frequencies). Much more likeiy is that your antenna was within line of site (maybe 30NM max) of a Class A (commercial) vessel (which act as repeaters for the entire regional picture).
Enjoying this a lot. Good techy chat. Great to hear your thought decision making processes
It's impressive how much you fly a spinnaker with a pole single handed, something I don't see single-handers doing a lot. (I'm chicken and have only used an asymmetric lol!)
yes, it's a shame that more solo sailors (or sailors in general) miss out on the time saving and enjoyment of flying a kite. I have raced a lot (crewed, short handed and solo) so I find sailing downhill without a kite a bit tedious so if the weather is suitable the kite goes up. I intend to do some follow up videos on solo/short handed kite flying as some point.
Epic stuff fella. Impressed how you keep sane on some of the days with such broken sleep!
Thanks Dan, this is (or was) both a mental and physical challenge. On the whole I was pretty lucky with or perhaps I planed a good route though the weather.
FYI the long AIS targets are most likely caused by a strange phenomenen called tropospheric ducting - at VHF radio propogation is by line of sight, you can work out the range quite easily BUT the signals also go up into the troposhere and once there, can bounce along and then come back down again. This can give you a range of many tens and into the hundreds of miles range.
It also works with voice VHF, sometimes you will hear a transmission from far away and if you are lucky you can reply.
Obviously of far more use for Amateur (HAM) Radio operators than sailors ...
Just started binge watching your videos, they are really good, thanks for taking the time to produce & share them
Great info, thanks for that, Makes sense. The boat has a HF radio but I don’t use us to transmit only rx but understand the theory of how it works. Didn’t think to apply the same to the ais/vhf.
@@RefitandSail Cool, I was curious if that was an HF antenna on the port side of the backstay. I am a ham radio nerd so I like such things. Great content and well fitted boat, thanks for sharing.
@@analyticalmastermind2569yes, that was the cable running up to the insulated backstay for ssb radio
Brilliant video! What time of year did you sail this passage?
Made it to the end. 😆
Enjoyed it. Thanks.
What happened to the pigeon❓
Ahh, so you are the one that made it to the end haha, thanks for watching. Pete the Pigeon just disappeared on me while I was below so I guess he flew off, he seemed in good condition so I hope he made it to land and lives to fly another day.
@@RefitandSail Thanks for the update on the pigeon.
If he flew off on his own accord he's likely fine.
Cushy doo. Well off course. Not sure he's designed for long distance flight. Bit of muesli would have done it.
Well done you make it look easy, could you maybe show a little more chart positioning as you progress enjoyed it very much.
Pleased you enjoyed it, thanks did the comment. I will keep that in mind on the next passagemaking video although that may not be until next year.
Could you not have changed to a larger blade on your wind vane to increase light wind performance.
The wind pilot does not have the option for a smaller or larger blade for different conditions, instead is allows you to rotate the wind vane up or down to increase or decrease the sensitivity based on the wind strength. I suppose there is no reason that a longer/larger blade cold not be made as long as it was the same weight as the old one. My issues at the time were down to friction in the bearings which will be easy to sort out on the next haul out.
@RefitandSail I have played with various sizes of paddle. Different materials too. To keep the forces balanced, i have an adjustable counter weight. Have also used circular zink annodes as a counterweight.