When I first quoted on delivering a Leopard 40 from Cape Town to Buenos
Aires, already the prospect of sailing the Atlantic Ocean started bubbling
up in me. The destination changed to St. Maarten as the date the owner
received the boat and the season moved on a bit. I mostly sailed the
Indian Ocean for the last two years, except for a delivery to France early
last year. Sailing to France you normally have a smooth run up to the
equator and from there on beat your way to the Med. This time round, we
are staying with the trade winds, past St. Helena where we will stop for a
day or two, past Brazil and French Guyana into the Caribbean via Barbados
and St.Lucia. Lots of smooth, fast sailing with following winds and seas.
No passage is ever without it's challenges though, the milk run as we call
this route can get a bit hectic at times, but mostly it's a song and a
breeze.
It is always interesting to sail with an owner on board. Different
dynamics for sure, 95% of my deliveries are with a 1st Mate and a
crew member. I have been most fortunate that the owners I have sailed with
before have become lifelong friends, bonded by days and nights out on the
ocean, for weeks on end. The amount of fun we get up to and the laughter
we share, the intense moments when things get a bit rough, the little
stops in between, and then finally, the arrival at our destination. All
moments forever cast in gold and scattered with diamonds.
On a good Monday, I was introduced to Hubert Heyndrickx. A jovial French
gentleman turning 64 this year. He has had some boating and sailing
experience before, but respected the fact that experience in crossing an
ocean is worth paying for, and hired me as skipper. Lots of advantages
attached to that as he found out. A fellow Frenchman, Noburt, has been in
Cape Town a few months and will could still be there for another month
before he can depart. Lots of red tape, safety inspections, registrations
etc you have to do before you can depart on a newly build yacht from South
Africa. To source all the goodies you want for your boat is much easier if
you have a skipper that knows exactly where to find what you need. Even
more so if you are a foreigner. And to have Tui Marine oversee procedures
you have the best team in the world to back you up. Tracker, satellite
phone, epirbs, liferaft etc all supplied and monitored by them. Within a
week of receiving the boat, we were officially ready to leave. We could now
focus on the weather and preparing and provisioning for crossing the
Atlantic Ocean.
La Marie Bulles is the name that the owner and his family chose for their
home on the sea. The name can mean a few things, and is a bit Spanish and a
bit French. It holds a special meaning for the family. In short, it can
also mean bubbles of the sea. And bubbles itself also has different symbolic
meanings. After a week of getting things sorted, the weather looked fine and on
the first Sunday after receiving the boat we took her for a maiden sail. Or
seatrial if you want. Had all the sails up and chased down some other
catamarans that were sailing in Table Bay. Beautiful sunny day it was and a
more spectacular background than Table Mountain and surrounds I have yet to
find, and I have travelled far and wide, on and off the beaten tracks.
Imagine buying a new car, and letting it sit there for a week before you drive
it. Now times that by a thousand and you will begin to understand a bit of
the anticipation Hubert must have experienced. He worked 42 years to realise
one of his childhood dreams. He had owned a few smaller boats before, but
this was the real one, the one you could sail across oceans in great comfort
and style. He also had a crate full of personal goodies imported from France
to find their place on their new home. Goodies that has sentimental value to
him and his wife Marie. All this was stored on board, gas bottles purchased,
filled and fitted, and soon one could start living on the boat. The Sunday
we took La Marie Bulles out for her first sail was very special. Hubert
requested to take the boat out of the mooring into the marina, through the
Bascule bridge and the Chevonne Battery swing Bridge, into port and out to
sea. I gave him a few pointers, and soon the sails were flying and bubbles
were bubbling behind the sugar scoops of the catamaran. I took a picture of
Hubert on the way out behind the helm. I haven't shown him the picture yet,
but the picture says it all. All smiles. We were out for a few hours, sailed
her back in, and after docking the boat, Hubert was a bag of mixed emotions.
A bit tense and a dry throat from docking the boat and ecstatic for having
at last sailed his boat were just two of these emotions. Promptly a bottle
of champagne was opened and with great ceremony a bit of bubbly poured on
the bows and the bowsprit of La Marie Bulles. In good time we had checked
and tested all the systems, all our provisioning was done except for the
final day before departure fresh produce. Now it was just waiting for the
weather to turn in our favour, which it did on the following Sunday.
I have been following and researching a very interesting product. A machine
that makes water from air. I have thought about the possibilities this could
offer for yachts all over the world and mentioned this to Hubert. He was
very interested and asked if we could order one. We only had a few days left
before departure. I contacted the supplier, placed an order, and for once
received service that far exceeded expectations. We expected delivery on
Saturday, a day before our departure, cutting it a bit fine. Friday before
lunch time I received a call, it was the couriers that had the machine ready
for delivery. The machine has not been tested on yachts before, and we are
the first boat to cross an ocean with the water from air machine aboard. On
this yacht we have a few sources of water. Firstly city water that we fill
our tanks with before we depart, 700ltrs.We also have a desalinator on
board. Desalinated water has been stripped from all minerals. Then we also
have 40ltrs of mineral water in 5ltr containers that we stocked up on. To
have water freshly made from the air sounded like a dream, and we could not
wait to test it. But we had to first get settled a bit. The particular model
we have is more for houses, offices, receptions etc. Nonetheless, we wanted
to test one, and it works brilliantly. There are different ways to power
them, and ours is the normal 220v which we run through our inverter. They
can also run on 12v, on gas, on solar etc. As we expected it to draw quite
a bit of power from our batteries, I opted to wait for a spell of light
winds when we could run one of the motors and keep the batteries charged and
keep our speed up. Without the motor on the machine did draw quite a bit of
power from our batteries as, but we ran it for two days. The producers are
looking at developing a product specifically for yachts. After studying the
owner and operator manual carefully, I switched the machine on and watched as
it started performing it's magic. And huge was my amazement after 24hrs of
filling a 5ltr container, then another one, and another one. Just to test the
functions of the machine, I also cooled the water down to 10*C, you can cool it
down to 4*C if you choose. Within a very short period of time, the water was
cooled to 10*C.
WATER IS LIFE
The next big test came in tasting the water. And once again, results far
exceeded expectations. Freshly made water, what a concept !!! And that is
exactly what it tasted like. Fresh, organic, free range water :))) A bit like
rainwater, I thought that it taste what clouds I imagine would taste like. In
most countries a glass of water you drink from the tap has been consumed by
at least 7 people before you and has been treated several times. With
contraceptive hormones and a lot of other things you probably don't want to
know about. Mineral water bottled at source is sometimes less pure than the
water from your tap. And there it is stored and distributed in plastic bottles
far and wide. Have you ever wondered what happens to all the millions of
plastic bottles that are discarded daily ? Sure some of them are recycled, but
I am even more sure that the majority of them are just dumped. Plastic water,
artificial. Desalinated water taste like nothing, and all health has been
filtered from it. Basically also dead water. Water is our most precious
resource. It is what gives our planet her spectacular blue hue when observed
from afar. And to have access to pure, freshly made water, I am still coming to
grips with the incredible health benefits, the possibilities it creates. To
have your own independent source of ultra healthy, ultra tasty water, well, now
you can. I have no doubt that it will change the quality of life for many
people, and I am most keen to share this technology and ideas of where and how
it can be implemented. There has long been talk of alternative sources of
energy i.e. solar or wind generated. Now we can also generate water and all
that brings into play. Email me at sailwithpaul@gmail.com to discuss this
subject more.
We departed from Cape Town at 10am on 21 Feb. North westerlies was blowing
for a few days prior, and to the dismay of the yearly Mykonos Race
fraternity, it was blowing deep into Saturday. The southerly winds came
through on Saturday afternoon as predicted, and Sunday we were ready as ever
to go. Time to wave Table Mountain goodbye and begin the long journey ahead
of us. The southerlies normally curve around Table Mountain and we had more
westerlies for the first few hours out. Main and genoa 2nd reef opened wide
on a broad reach and with 16kts of wind we were of to a great start. Smooth
and fast, and not to huge a stretch to get your sea legs. That night the wind
maxed at 22kts, but as we were deeply reefed, we had no need to adjust any
sails.
The first morning out at sea and the wind turned SSE and we could rig our
twin head sail configuration. And as the swell direction and wind direction
came in line, we started experiencing sailing at it's best, so early in the
journey. As a habit, we don't prepare supper for the first two days. There
are light snacks, biltong, cold meat, bread etc and everyone helps themselves.
The wind dropped even more and at about noon we decided to try the Code 0
sail. Lovely and versatile sail to have in light winds. A Code 0 sail is a
fairly big, light gauge sail that you can easily furl in or out. Relatively
easily I should add. It always takes new crew one or two tries to perfect
deploying and furling a Code 0. Sailing with a full genoa on the one side,
and the Code 0 on the other side, gives a lot of sail to catch the wind.
Balancing the two sails is an art in itself. And when the current or swell
shape and direction change, you have to fine tune your sails again. The goal
is to go as fast and as comfortable as possible with the least amount of
stress on the boat and crew.
On our track you will notice that we sometimes sail nearly north at times,
and at times nearly west. Our heading towards St.Helena is as you can
probably guess, north west. But we are making most of the prevailing
conditions, keeping a fine balance between speed and comfort. The second night
the weather was gentle and we kept flying our twin head sails making good
miles in great comfort. The wind eased off quite a bit more, and we started
motor sailing. The very little wind was predicted to last for two days, and
whilst we were motoring, also used the opportunity to run our water from air
machine, with spectacular results as mentioned before. The third day we were
getting into the rhythm of day and night watches, and I also cooked our first
proper meal for the trip. A hearty country stew it was, and as we haven't had a
proper meal for two days, it went down very well. A hungry tummy is always the
best cook :)
On Thursday the wind came through stronger again from the south and we were
sailing in a northerly direction for most of the day. Just before sunset we
changed sails and opted for second reef main and genoa on a broad reach. That
way we will be prepared for stronger winds than predicted, just in case. We
were now sailing towards St.Helena again. Friday during the day we had twin
head sails up again and Friday night the stronger weather made us rig the main
sail and genoa again. The wind did come through quite a bit stronger than
predicted, but as we anticipated it, we were ready. Sailing with just the main
sail opened wide at about 150* to the wind, we were quite safe and
comfortable. Nice to have the best technology on board to download weather
forecasts anywhere in the world. It takes a lot of guessing out of the
equation, and we can make informed decisions. I don't just make a call what
sail configuration we will use, I show my fellow crew the latest weather,
discuss our options and explain why I make a certain decision. They also then
know what to expect and understand better my decisions as skipper. Yesterday
the wind was a bit stronger again, and we used my loose genoa and the fixed
genoa in unison to optimize the wind from behind. I decided to carry on with
these sails for the night and they served us well. This morning the wind
dropped a bit, and the weather forecast predicted calmer conditions. Looking
at the cloud formations, I decided to drop the loose genoa, and rig the Code
0. And we have been sailing with these two huge sails with the wind and swell
from behind and will probably carry on like this throughout the night.
It is great to be out sailing the open ocean again. Vast expanses of blue. And
at night, the stars are shining brighter and brighter as the moon is waning and
appearing later and later at night. I showed Hubert one of my favourite
clusters in the sky last night. A cluster called Pleiades. One can just not
make out the individual stars that form this cluster with the naked eye, but
through a normal set of binoculars, one gets a glimpse of the magic that is to
be found out there.
I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you.
Until next time
P.S. Email me if you want to learn more about making water from air !
