ARC-87

After many years of dedicated work, and raising a family, I was enjoying the slow down in my life. Our kids were grown and I had been mildly successful in the sale of my business, I had taken some of the proceeds from the sale and built our new home in the suburbs of Dallas, and was really feeling good about the strains no longer felt from everyday pressures of making a living and trying to keep up with the Jones's.

Though I still needed to work some to keep the things I had worked for from slipping away, with no employees , I was working at the pace and the job that I enjoyed. So when my friend called from the Mediterranean and asked me to come over and help him sail the boat back to Texas, I was thrilled at the opportunity to really relax and do nothing for a few months.

One of the thrills of a trip like this is getting ready to go. Telling everyone of the coming adventure and anticipation to the point of not being able to sleep at night. When I told one of my service customers of my plan, she said I was living out my fantasies, which was exactly how I felt.

When I sold my business earlier, it was like a slap in the face to my wife, who though she didn't want to be active in the business, enjoyed the fine things she could have. On the way to the closing in the car with our attorney, she asked if he also handled Divorce. Of course that didn't happen , but even though we split the sale money evenly, our relationship went down hill from there. While we didn't fight we did live separate lives in the same house. So when I told her I was on my way to Spain and to look for me when she saw me coming, I think she was a little relieved to have me gone without the hardship of divorce.

Jack being a Texan and being away for two years, had a craving for Blue Bell ice cream and Wolfe brand chili. He had done the thing most of us want to do, he and his wife had sold their home and converted it to a sail boat and provisions for an extended trip on the ocean. They sailed across the Atlantic and toured the islands in the eastern Mediterranean and motored up the canals in France. Being that close for so long was trying on their marriage and it failed, so he was over there with no help to bring the boat back to Texas.

I checked with the Spanish Embassy about the cravings of my friend, and was told I could not import dairy products from the U.S.A., but they would probably not check my small carry on bags, if they did they would only take it away from me, so I smuggled a half gallon of Blue Bell ice cream in a bag with 10 pounds of dry ice and I brought a large can of Wolfe Brand chili in my luggage. It was seven hours to Madrid and a short flight to the Canary Islands where we were to meet. The ice cream was just right to eat when I arrived.

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. A beautiful modern city with a monstrous marina. I don't think I've ever seen as many sailboats in one place. I found this was the jumping off place for the trip across the Atlantic and we were to be a part of the ARC-87. Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, a race across the Atlantic to Barbados and was restricted to live aboard.

The time he had to himself after his wife left wasn't wasted. When I arrived aboard there was a replacement, an English girl much younger than he and, except for her hair reminded me a lot of Dolly Parton. This was going to be an interesting crossing. Also on board was her pet Doberman Pincer. The dog barked constantly when Paula was away or didn't pay attention to her. When we left the boat one day to buy supplies for the trip, the dog barked the entire time we were gone. She was driving all the Yachties crazy, and that night we had a visit from four men from a yacht flying the Canadian flag. They asked as politely as they could to keep the dog quiet. We understood their concern and apologized but something in the language rubbed us the wrong way and we never forgot that boat. 

When I met Jack and Paula that first day, my mind wasn't working properly. A monstrous dog, a vivacious young lady and two old heads on a 28 foot sail boat for a month. A round trip ticket to Spain was cheaper than one way so I still had the return ticket in my pocket, with just a little thought I would have used it.

But this was my best friend and his choice of companions, so we sailed out of Las Palmas at the starting gun with 364 other boats looking forward to the trip with company. There was no set route and there was 2800 miles of water ahead . We had sailed just before dark and were concerned about possibly running into someone in the dark. But morning brought a different view. I thought everyone else had gone back. There was not a sign of a boat in sight. We were alone . There was a strong wind and low swells, this was going to be a fast and comfortable crossing. Being from Texas I don't know why it didn't dawn on me that the weather always changes several times in a month. It changed and not for the better. Sometimes I was petrified at the constant pounding on the hull. I wondered how much abuse the boat could stand. The poor dog didn't have a chance, she wasn't allowed inside because of her size and made her home in the cockpit . We would cover with deck cushions so she wouldn't be so afraid at night, but when the water came over the rail it filled the cockpit and the poor dog was a pathetic sight. She was scared to death. I felt sorry for her because she had no option but to sail with us. She was afraid to go forward to the sand box so she did it anywhere she was and you put your hand in it or sat in it every time. I really didn't like the dog and told them I didn't know I was going to compete for space with a dog. They knew how I felt so I had to watch to make sure she didn't fall over board, they would surely think I pushed her.

The boat was a Westsail 28, her name was HANTA-YO which in Teton Sioux, means "Clear the way".

A big heavy slow boat named by her manufacture a "Circumnavigator". It truly is a good blue water boat, but my only experience off shore was to" hot bunk "from Houston to Cosumel Mexico on a 33' Hans Christen with four others a year earlier. That was a great trip.

Since there were three of us to stand watch, we stood 3 on 6 off. It seemed that at night with no moon, the boat was a lot faster and felt like riding a freight train through a tunnel expecting any minute to hit something. At times the swells were like mountains and we were like a cork bobbing in these hills and valleys. On one night I saw 8 knots on a less than 7 knot hull wearing a triple reefed main and storm jib.

The weather got better and I settled down like an old pro to doing nothing. I studied my Spanish language, cleaned up after the dog and tried to ignore the sun bathers on the fore deck . I watched the Dolphins in our bow wake and the Dorado ( Some call them Pampano dolphin, or Mahi Mahi ) in the shade of our hull.

We saw a pod of 7 or 8 some kind of whale pass us like were standing still. We were doing 6.5 knots.

The little birds never missed a day skimming over the water down through the troughs. I wonder where thy slept. We ran under a full main and 110 jib, but found that we could do as well with just a 135 drifter and the main wasn't in our way. Still no other boats in sight, but we had a Ham radio but no license so we could only listen on the marine net for news of the others. One day we heard of a 72 year old single hander, not with us that fell overboard relieving himself off the fantail and his boat sailed off without him. He was pick out of the sea by an Italian freighter after three days in his life vest. I wonder what the odds are of seeing a dot in the ocean or even caring what it was.

Fishing was good. We caught Dorado each day and cooked them in many different ways. We only fished in the daytime because at night the Barracuda would strip the hooks of the line. We did catch one so we knew what they were. All teeth. Our provisions included fresh fruit and vegetables that we had to eat first or it would go bad. We had bread mix that only needed a little seawater. It was great. Our mainstay was Frey Bento, a French dinner that had been Nuked and didn't need refrigeration. We bought many dozen eggs that had not been washed so they kept for weeks. And of course we had plenty of canned food, fruits and vegetables. On this diet, I ate everything I wanted and lost 27 over weight pounds in 28 days at sea.

While most boats sailed south to Cape Verde to pick up the trade winds, we took a more direct route hoping to keep our good winds. That didn't happen and we lost the wind completely for five days. We only had 75 gallons of diesel and we need to run our engine one hour each day to recharge the batteries so we only motored at that time. All in all the trip was very boring except for those moments of extreme excitement. Like the morning at day break I looked out to see a very large whale of the Moby Dick variety asleep on the surface under way at about 1/2 knot, his eyes under water, heading directly to the broad side of our boat. We were dead in the water on a sea of glass. I called below to Jack to get the video camera.

I told him what I saw and he said," To hell with the camera, start that engine." I shudder to think of what would have happed had he been jarred awake as he hit our boat. When I cranked the engine, luckily he sounded and we were relieved to see him far away on the horizon.

We set the spinnaker and waited for the wind to freshen and after five days, we were under way at about 4 to 6 knots, which lasted for several days. Then we set the 135 jib again, seldom using the main. One day while Paula was on watch, Jack was asleep in the vee berth and I in the salon. We were in fairly strong winds and a beautiful day with those pretty little rain showers scattered all over the horizon and heeled to about 20 degrees, uncomfortable for me but I was not the captain. ( This was the only problem he and I had. He was too lazy to change sail saying the wind would probably lay soon. One day when I suggested several times we slack the sails, and if he didn't want to do it I would be glad to make the change. He went into a rage like a wild man and came at me with a real anger in his eyes and yelling like I had never seen him do before. It really shocked me but I wasn't afraid of him. We are about the same size and I always felt I could handle my side of a fight, but this was a wild man. He stopped before he got to me and we were dead quiet for an hour or more. He changed the sails and later apologized and hugged me, and even kissed me on the cheek. This didn't change my feelings at all and that night I slept with a bread knife under my pillow. I was 1000 miles off shore with someone I didn't know. If anyone was going to swim, it wasn't going to be me.)

Any way Paula saw the rain ahead and was looking forward to a fresh water shower, when it hit we were so far over, the wind in the rain storm knocked us over on our side and the jib filled with water and held us over. She screamed and I saw everything falling on top of me and two 8" columns of water through the port holes shooting straight up. Jack was fast and passed me on the way to cut the sheet loose. With that done, we came upright with the sole plates floating in a foot of water. Everything that wasn't secured was soaked with sea water. The micro wave, the T V, the video recorder, and most of the food, all the bedding and clothes, but we were happy to be alive and afloat 1500 miles off shore and no life raft. (At the inspection before we left Las Palmas, we borrowed a required raft, then returned it after the inspection. We had a soft dinghy strapped down on the fore deck flat in a bag. It had to be inflated with a foot pump. Jack said " Don't worry if we were sinking you'd be scared enough I could blow it by mouth." When we got to Barbados, we need a dinghy and it took close to an hour to inflate by foot pump.)

I haven't mentioned it yet but I was scared and hadn't realized how much my family meant to me till now.

I always loved them but this was different, I missed them. That night as we ran the engine an extra hour to charge the batteries due to the need for the bilge pumps, I sat at the radio on the side band trying to reach Miami Radio in an attempt to call home. Many tries on previous nights were fruitless, but that night I found Miami Radio and she confirmed my signal was commercial and patched me through to AT&T. I gave her my credit card number and began calling everyone in my family. I called My wife, my daughter, my son, all in Texas and called my brother in Illinois. I didn't realize it was three in the morning there. I didn't tell them what had happened just that I missed them and I would see them soon. While I was calling, Jack and Paula were watching from the cockpit at my success and asked if I knew how much those phone calls were costing. I told them I didn't really care, and wasn't sure I be around to pay for them .

I don't really have words to explain to you the relief I felt after talking to my family. I actually felt I could take anything that would happen to come. I was so weak, relaxed and satisfied that I fell back on the bunk and cried uncontrollably for a long time. I was truly at peace with the world. I guess that was a religious experience for me. The rest of the trip, though not uneventful was a piece of cake. I had a completely new attitude and outlook.

Everything we had was tied on deck to dry for the next two weeks. We had 50 gallons of fresh water in the main tank and 25 gallons in a converted holding tank in the fore peak, it had a deck side vent. One week out of Barbados, the main tank went dry and we switched to the reserve and found that when we were knocked down, the forward tank vent was under water our reserve was now salty. So bad that we tried to make coffee, boiled it and mixed it with Tang but it was still the worst tasting stuff you ever tried to drink.

We still had one bottle of Evian water, but we saved it for an emergency or till we could see land. There were a few bottles of beer stashed here and there which was a good thirst quencher but the six bottles of Gin that his wife had hidden was worthless. We were down to the canned food by now and it had a lot of water in it so we were OK. When you know you are out of water, that's all you can think about.

As we approached the"100 mile reef" off Barbados, the swells were like you can't imagine, We were up on top of a mountain where we could see forever or down deep in a valley with the walls ready to cave in on us. We were on a tack down the swells and it was impossible for me to hold a course with the till in my hand. I don't know how that little 1/2 in rod on the Auto Helm could hold it perfect. That was the best $600.00 investment you could make. The Satnav would come in at the top also because while we had a sextant, we didn't know how to use it. It's easy to see why we saved our fuel to charge the batteries. These things were electric and we truly need them.

As we neared the island of Barbados with the island in sight we drank the Evian and bathed in the brine water and were overjoyed at the sight of the L1011 Delta on final. They probably couldn't see us but I'm sure they could hear me yelling "Wait for me". Every one was thrilled to pass the final gate. The dog was barking again without stopping, we were in touch by radio as we cross the line, they directed us to the moorings but couldn't believe we were number 156 across the line on our 28^th day. We thought, surely everyone had been there and gone home for Christmas. It was a continuous party for the next three or four days and then with three boats still out, they declared the race over. The only problems we heard of were, one boat lost it's main but came in with a jib, one lost its tiller in sight of the island and was toed in and,

the Canadian boat disintegrated on the north reef two miles off shore at night with everyone down below not realizing how close they were. All for men swam to shore but they only found a few small pieces of the boat. If it had to happen to anyone, who better? (Said the dog.) The First boat arrived in eleven days, the last in thirty-two days form the start.

Don't take a gun to a foreign country. It was a nightmare trying to check it into customs and the dog was almost as bad. They don't want either of them. We had to take the dog but we left the gun with them, it wasn't worth the trouble.

I left the boat to the "Honeymooners" and spent the holidays at a Bajon Bed & Breakfast, where I was adopted by two beautiful women. Daniel and her daughter, Dominique with no man in the house, took me in and in true friendship coddled me through the holidays with all the parties and dinners as a member of the family. I think they just liked to see me hit both walls as I tried to walk down the hall. It was really hard to say goodbye to them and "Sea Mist", the beautiful little home they have on Barbados. I hope I can go back some day. But now I have an appointment with an L1011.