I sail across the atlantic single handed! Mindelo to Martinique. Some more calm winds, then good wind, then sargasso weed getting caught on my aries wind vane steering and driving me slowly mad. Part 2 of 3
When your windvane rudder gets clogged you can try turning up into the wind, the weed drops off and away you go. Tip of the hat to Patrick Laine who demonstrates that technique in one of his Atlantic crossing videos. Certainly beats leaning out of the boat...
Great progress mate. Lovely hearing a man mention Sligo bay while he,s sitting in mid Atlantic. Hoping to sail up into Sligo town in 2024. Great video.👍👍💪🇮🇪
It's great Mark. Jimmy would be so proud of you. Congratulations! The fact that you had so few gear breakages is a testament to your meticulous preparation.
When you see something close to the boat there, its a good idea to get your survival gear beside you just in case it hits and you go flying!.. Thanks for sharing the experience!
Wow Mark ! What an off the scale adventure. Finally got to watch all the vids over the Xmas break just in time to be somewhat current with your travels. The videos are great. Will have to get you spearfishing over the summer when you're back in Ireland. May come in handy when you're not completely in the middle of the Ocean. Really enjoying travelling vicariously with you.
Really is a brilliant and inspiring adventure, one day if the stars align, a solo transatlantic will be attempted. GREAT videos Mark! Keep it up, 2023 is your year!
Many congratulations Mark. You have obviously reached Martinique! Lovely video with a focus on weed, which I have not seen mentioned before with mariners crossing the Atlantic. So good to know. Seems relatively trouble free apart from the weed. I am in awe. ⛵️
Thanks a million Hugh, yes in Martinique now, all well. The weed was a problem at certain windspeeds for sure, I got a lot of those speeds in the second week of the passage. Much less of a problem in the last week.
what a fantastic & beautiful atlantic passage you had, thanks for sharing your experience with us land lubbers, i'd love to do this even tho the sea can be very unforgiving at times..to finally cross the ocean and be surrounded by lush green islands with exotic plants & flowers whilst humming birds buzzing about..Its a totally different world . Enjoy this very special occasion in your Life .
This has been a great journey with you Mark! Very inspirational, although never thought I'd see a man of your sailing talents be in any way nervous at times about sailing a boat wherever it may be! Good winds to you bro, looking forward to the rest of your trip, safe travels! ... I had actually wondered about when you mentioned the orca situation earlier around the Spanish coast and had no idea why you would avoid the potential contact with them. A quick search after and now I see why! Jaysus!
Very nice job. You are now in a fairly small club as a single handed sailor with an informed opinion. Every voyage I learn something new. Also have the same vexing challenge with sargasso on the servo blade of my Cape Horn windvane-so you are not alone. Cleared it with boat hook same as you. Also very fatigued waking up all night to clear it after rounding up/gybing. The only solution I can see is auto pilot steering through main rudder at those times. Not an option for me-too much power required. Increasing sargasso since 2010. Different theories for why. Luckily seems to be limited to mostly Cape Verde through Caribbean to Central America. Seems other oceans not as affected. Have fun this winter!
Lovely comment, thank you! Great to know that I'm not alone in having problems with servo pendulum rudders and sargasso, it does seem to be less of an issue once the wind gets up a bit. Not looking forward to the sargasso sea on the way home!
Another good one Sir. Setting aside ‘weed’, you’re handling it well & I’m left eagerly awaiting 2 things; a) the next instalment & b) spring. Cheers JohnL
The trim tab Autosteer windvane I had on my old Halmatic would have no problems with the weed. I sailed up the South American coast on a long keel yacht and one dark night, somewhere off the Amazon, me on watch, went over a log or maybe a whale and the servo blade of the Aires caugnt after we had ridden over whatever it was. It continued to steer the course and in daylight we found the strong alu mounting tubes bent up. Quite a testament to the Aires gear.
Yes, the Aries is a great piece of kit. I love mine to bits. The issue was at certain windspeeds only, when the wind was quite light, in stronger winds it was more than powerful enough to deal with the weed and it didn't stay on long anyhow.
Next time I cross I'll definitely set it up (unless I have a much more sturdy electric option). Not sure how well Sapphira would do with sheet to tiller especially in lighter wind (wasn't as much of an issue in stronger wind as there was enough pressure on the vane to overcome the weed)
Just found your channel and subscribed . it’s great to see a smaller boat doing this passage I’ve wondered about doing it in my 27ft Albin Vega that used to have rolling boom reefing like yours but it’s now slab . It’s good to see you talking about how long it is alone I honestly think that’s the biggest thing about this crossing. I also wonder if it’s something that for me would be better with my other half or something best done alone? Would his trip be too much for a couple on a small boat? Does the size of the boat make much difference ? I think not probably . But my other concern on a small boat doing this passage with two people would be the capacity to carry enough water and food for two of us. Now you’ve done it what do think?
It's a great question and has got me thinking. I think to do it alone, you have to want to do it alone. Sinead (or my mum) would have been well capable of it and if something had gone wrong I would have been very glad of the extra hands. I had a perfect test across Biscay, then got to sail double handed from northern Spain to the Canaries via Madeira, 2 decent offshore passages, then single handed to Cape Verde, all of which gave me the confidence to do the Atlantic solo. On Sapphira we would have had room for the extra water (I had more than enough food for 2 along even solo), I know the Vegas are smaller but I think you could find the room if needed? I would say if your other half is really keen to do it, and you're ambivalent about sailing alone, do it as a couple, whereas if the opposite is true, do it alone. I would definitely do it alone rather than take on crew I had never sailed with before. Hope this helps, happy to answer any other questions. Albin Vega a great boat, looked at one while looking for Sapphira. Very capable.
Heading down to Cabo Verde from Tenerife in the morning. Fishing has been very good so far but want me some.mahi mahi instead of tuna for a change. :) Looking forward to turning and burning westward in about 10 days. Take care mate.⛵⛵
Thanks Eric, hope your passage went well down to Verde and fair winds on your Atlantic crossing! Good luck with the mahi mahi, the sargasso makes it a challenge but apparently they hide under clumps of it so it's worth perservering with cleaning the weed off and throwing the hook over again every so often. Or maybe weight the leader slightly to sink it a bit?
@@SoloSailingSapphira cheers mate. We arrived this morning making excellent daily progress, we maintained a mostly 20-30kt wind and 3 meter seas rocking out a 155 mile daily average. Needless to say we are over the moon. Plan to depart Saturday for Antigua. Plan to do some bait casting on every weed pile we pass. 😊⛵
Hi Hugh, yes I did! I posted a few videos over the summer about my trip back to Ireland, I arrived back in Dingle in late August and I've been living aboard in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry since then. Been meaning to do another video for a while so will probably manage that this side of Christmas!
Thank you for sharing..Is Sapphira a Nicholson 31?. These are not common boats here in the U.S. Would like if you can share your thoughts on her ( This model) so far being in the middle of the Atlantic . Did you feel entirely safe and confident in her seaworthiness during your voyages. ( Bay of Biscay crossing included) Congratulations on your safe and successful journey looking forward to see more.
She's a Halmatic 30 Steven, very similar to the Nic 31, just a touch smaller. Same long keel, transom hung rudder configuration. I am very impressed overall with her abilities as a sea boat. I have to admit heading off into Biscay I was concerned about the rig, even though I had the rigging redone a couple of years ago and the D bolt deck attachments for the shrouds replaced last season. I don't really like the D bolt through the deck rigging attachment, rather than proper chainplates, but the yard that replaced them told me the deck is designed for it and built appropriately thickly. She has a great motion through the waves, minimal slamming, which more modern designs I've sailed on suffer from. She would be my forever boat if she wasn't a little small for long term cruising for two. Thanks very much for watching and for your comment!
Just found your channel! Great stuff! I think the halmatic/barbican 30 are such a great solo boats! Is there anything you think the fall short of? I think it is just the perfect size for a solo to manage everything alone. Cheers!
Thanks for the comment! I agree, the Halmatic is a wonderful solo boat and the Barbican from looking at a friend's is just as capable and with nicer finishings and slightly more solid looking rig. I don't really have anything to compare to when it comes to solo sailing, I did a bit on my first boat, a mirage 28, and the Halmatic will obviously win in every category except going astern in marinas. My trip from Ireland so far this year has been mostly marked by uneventfulness, no crazy breakages, no shredded sails or lines giving way, which I think is a testament to what a solid boat she is given this is my first time doing this. As for what falls short, the way I had things set up, light wind was a challenge. In the future on a boat like this I'd look at a proper twin headsail setup. All the other frustrations I have with the boat are more maintenance specific and I think probably apply to most small boats; terrible engine access, a completely inaccessible aft bilge that must have 10 rusty vice grips in it going back years, etc. I hope this helps, I'll probably do a video about the Halmatic 30 in the future. Let me know if you have any more questions!
@@SoloSailingSapphira Really enjoyed watching your videos, excellent content! A question regarding drinking water; how big water tanks does Halmatic 30 have, did you take much extra water in separate canisters? And how much did you end up using during the crossing?
@@mikkom8057 hi Mikko, thanks for the comment! I'm not sure about the original water tank, but I replaced it with a hard plastic 100 litre tank. In addition to this I carried around 50 additional litres in various plastic bottles. I figured about 2.5 litres a day, and I wanted not to depend completely on the hard tank in case of contamination. I don't know exactly how much I used, I didn't have a gauge on the tank and I got worried about running out so I started using the bottled water exclusively after the first week, and washing dishes in seawater, etc. I got through most of the bottles and still had water in the main tank on arrival. Hope this helps!
@@SoloSailingSapphira Dividing the water into several containers seems like a very good idea. Getting all drinking water contaminated in a middle of Atlantic must be a recipe for a truly unpleasant afternoon, unless one has a small watermaker aboard. Did you carry much other liquids apart from the 150 litres of water, eg. fruit juices and soft drinks?
Hey Mark, just found your channel recently, its awesome. I hope to be crossing the atlantic on my own boat in the not too distant future. Can you share some info about your furling boom? Is it original, or an upgrade?
Hi, it's original to the best of my knowledge. I didn't like it for reefing for a couple of reasons; most importantly for my purposes were that it can't be reefed downwind, it needs to be close to the centerline to roll, so I'd have needed to go head to wind to reef which I didn't fancy. Also in a proper wind, the boom is flying left to right and makes it difficult to furl. Lastly, the mainsail leech tension was pretty rubbish with it reefed around the boom, with no easy way of setting up a kicking strap (vang). I use it now to furl my sail for storage but converted to slab reefing for actually reefing. The roller does seem well made and shows no signs of breaking, I had worries that the gooseneck would be a weak point but not so far.
@@SoloSailingSapphira thanks for the reply. You make some interesting points which I didn't really consider. I thought about changing mine out for something like a furling boom as I thought it would make reefing easier. I also sail mostly single handed, and thought it could be an advantage.
Just to add, mine is really ancient, the entire boom rotates and the sail wraps around the outside of it. There may be a more modern solution that would not present the issues above.
@@SoloSailingSapphira I’m glad I read this comment now it makes sense to me why my boat that had this system now has slab reefing and a hydraulic boom vang
Buy yourself a very fine file... and keep those fish hooks sharp... you will catch a lot more fish with sharp hooks All that trolling -- the lure bumps into bits of floating stuff all the time, and the point of the hooks slowly blunt
Two yellowhammers arrived in the feeding area of my garden today. I bet you cant seen yellowhammers out there on dwater in dadlantic. Poor you. You being alone in such a vast space reminds me of my time assigned to a convent full of virgin nuns,,240 of them. Twas in Caracas ..There I was,,an innocent banker (rhymes with) surrounded by nuns,,shur I might as well have been doin what your doing..I felt very much alone ,,all those nuns in their bondage habits prayin about the place, singin to the high heavens and the all chose to leave me alone,,,just as alone as you feel out there on dwater. Anyway,,I was out of me dog collar in the kitchen teachin a few novices how to make a coddle,,a Dublin dish,,didnt one of them make all sorts of suggestive remarks about doirish sausages I had,,shw was comparin them to chorizo,,the chorizo was winning out until I dropped my honourable member on the table and told her,,,thats a real Irish sausage,,,we are married now with 3 land maggotts , all with snotty noses speakin a mixture of Gaelic English and Spanish. my feeling alone in that convent brought forth the fruit of life,,,as you read this,,you are back with huge grown up land maggotts.
Sinead and I live for your entertaining and hilarious comments Dee, hope you, your Irish sausage, your suggestive nun and your land maggots all had a great Christmas and New Year!
