Jenny, badass.
I would like it to be known that I’m married to the greatest woman alive. There’s a saying that’s been attributed to John Wayne, I think: ‘True courage is being scared as hell, and then saddling up anyway.’ I don’t think that Jenny was ever ‘scared as hell’, but the potential for the Atlantic crossing […]
Transat Part V – Crossing to Ireland
“What? Piss off!” This was one of the first interactions that we enjoyed in Ireland. Some context is in order. A passerby on the dock stopped to check out the boat and have a chat. When he asked us how long it took us to get across the Atlantic, this was his response to our […]
Transat Part IV – Mac Gyver
So, we left St John’s late in the evening. When we started up the engine, it gave the slightest little hiccup, and then carried on as normal. I ran the revs up an down, waited a while, and wrote it off as our first really cold start in a while. Wrong… We motored for the […]
The Atlantic, crossed.
Hi everybody, we’ll have some more detail after we’ve rested a bit. Rocket Science has crossed the N. Atlantic, boat and crew has arrived in good shape, and the passage time was excellent. Under 9 days to get across. Nice. More later. TJ
Transat Part 3 – The Wait
We’ve been hanging around St. John’s for what feels like forever by now. There has been a low developing to our SW for days, which is forecast to bring gale force NE’ly winds to the Grand Banks. It will finally arrive tomorrow. So, being the prudent mariners that we are, we’re sitting tight and letting […]
Transat Part 2 – Newport, RI – St. John’s, Newfoundland
After 3 days in Newport, our autopilot issues were finally resolved, thankfully under warranty, and we were able to get underway again. I’m happy to report that in all of our digging into the pilot problem, we discovered that the NKE system does not send enough voltage into the clutch for the electric drive. The […]
Transat, leg one-a bit shorter than planned
We left Charleston on Thursday, July 14th, with an intended destination of probably Halifax, but maybe all the way to Newfoundland if the weather looked good. Our friend Tim joined us on Wednesday, we took care of some final boat chores, and got out of the 98 degree heat of Charleston just as soon as […]
Prison with a chance of drowning?
After nearly a decade with TJ I figured it was time to go for a trip with him on the Constellation. She is a 170′ Bering Sea fishing boat. I was excited and anxious at the same time. Mostly I was concerned about getting seasick, while he was mostly concerned about getting me on the […]
The storm trysail, and other odd bits seeing the light of day for the first time
We’re now in the process of getting ready to cross the N. Atlantic. Basically, when I come back from Alaska, the plan is to take off immediately when I get home from work and sail straight to Halifax or Newfoundland, take a short breather, and then continue on from St. John’s to the UK, unless […]
Stuck inside of Charleston with the Rockland blues again
We had paid up at the Ocean Club marina through the end of March, so we stuck around there until the 30th, when a decent weather window presented itself for the trip north. The coast from about Hatteras northward had been seeing some pretty lousy weather. One gale after another had been passing through the […]