1200 Miles and Counting...By Andy Schnell

1200 Miles and Counting... by Andy Schnell fter 1200 miles and 14 days, my actually the end— Mia Karlsson ventures out into the blue yonder. !ancée Mia and I have made it to the seas were huge, Photo by Andy Schell Florida on Arcturus. We’re still a and from every Along way from Sweden, our ultimate goal. direction, but there Longer, geographically, than if we hadn’t wasn’t a breath of left Annapolis at all. wind. We rolled on Mentally, we’re well on our way. Arc- our beam-ends for turus, our 1966 Allied Seabreeze yawl, has 12 hours, becalmed. miles under her hull now, miles with us Finally at sunrise a tirelessly manning the helm, miles sailing light northwesterly o"shore, and many more under power on sprang up, and we the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We’ve set full sail for the learned her annoying habits, embraced her last 150 miles to wonderful traits, and have increased our Fernandina Beach, “To-Do” list 10-fold. Prior to this trip, FL, which we made we’d never made it south of Oxford on the early the third Chesapeake in Arcturus. morning, sailing Unfortunately, we were in a hurry; after all the way in the one leisurely day in Oriental, NC, where inlet for fear that a fellow Seabreeze owner, Roy Harvey, my engine wouldn’t hosted us for the day, we turned south make it. Miracu- again, full speed ahead. Arcturus was put- lously, the diesel ting in 70- and 80-mile days motoring actually posed no down the ICW. We often never saw our more problems in anchorages in daylight, for we’d set out the week it took us before dawn and drop the hook with the to do the remainder aid of a #ashlight, well after sunset. of the ICW. We ar- Our engine was giving us headaches. rived at our new slip Since I’m not much of a diesel mechanic, I in Pompano Beach, decided to do what I know best—and what FL last night. the boat loves the most—and sail. Mia Mia and I and I re-!tted twin backstays at the dock learned a lot by Finally, with the right preparation, Mia in Wrightsville Beach, NC before heading doing that 300-mile hop o"shore. $e and I are further convinced that Arcturus o"shore. We used new synthetic rigging, most glaring item missing on Arcturus was is a very suitable o"shore sailor. She is and the four splices took me only one hour a means for self-steering. I can’t wait to get incredibly fast o" the wind and loves to while motoring down the waterway. $e the wind vane from Yves Gelinas. It was surf. Despite the uncomfortable motion, deadeyes and lashings that replaced the brutal hand-steering for three-hours-on, she handled the confused seas left over turnbuckles are old-school cool and look three-o" for 72 hours. We met Yves at this from the low without so much as getting rather dandy on our classic yawl. years’ U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis— her decks wet. $e 160 miles we covered We went outside at Masonboro Inlet, his tape measure currently resides in with only jib and mizzen in the !rst 24 north of Wilmington, NC, set the jib and Arcturus’s bilge, after he came by during hours was some of the best sailing I’ve had mizzen in a brisk northerly, and banged the show to measure for our vane. He still in my career. out 160 miles in our !rst 24 hours of ever personally builds his Cape Horn vanes he At the outset, we never actually pictured sailing Arcturus in the ocean! It was a invented for his circumnavigation via the arriving at our slip in Florida, for the long raucous ride, and the boat loved it. She was Great Capes in his Alberg 30 Jean-du-Sud. slog. Even dimmer was the image of mak- thanking us for turning o" the motor and Yves’s single-handed circumnavigation ing a summer landfall in Sweden next year. letting her stretch her legs. I’m still amazed ranks right up there with Chichester and Yet after all this—1200 miles inshore and at how e"ortlessly she sails, when it feels Moitessier, circling the globe with only one o"—the Trans-Atlantic, which seemed like such a struggle to make !ve knots stop, unplanned, after a dismasting in the a distant pipedream only two weeks ago, under power. She’s an absolutely wonderful Southern Ocean. His movie, “Round the suddenly seems real. sailing boat. World with Jean-du-Sud,” is a classic. About the Author: Andy Schell and his $e second night we got caught out in Furthermore, I am not going o"shore !ancée Mia plan to winter in Florida on a low-pressure system that materialized again without !rst re-doing the rest of the Arcturus to complete her re!t in warm into more than the weathermen predicted rigging, something I knew at the outset, weather before heading to Sweden in the (imagine that), with gusts over 40 knots. but didn’t take seriously. During the storm, spring. A professional captain and writer, We blasted o" doing eight knots with only I was practically waiting for the forestay to Andy maintains a sail training business half the jib out. $e worst of the storm was go, and it was an unnecessarily tense night. with his dad: fathersonsailing.com. 36 January 2010 SpinSheet spinsheet.com.

Load more