One day, Ryan approached me and said "I think I would want to solo this passage", and my initial reaction was "no" ;) But after talking about it for some time, we realized that we were in the ideal position to make it happen, and I was happy that I could support Ryan in his project! Will we do it again? That's a question for another time :p
"I sail to be out on the deep blue endless eternal sea. Sailing slowly is like a slow walk in the woods. It suits me. The sea is kind to the gentle seafarer." -- Sven Yrvind
Ryan, enjoyed the 59 North Podcast interview you did with Andy. I appreciate you being so candid about your emotions awaiting the rescue helicopter. And there was no need to apologize. Much respect for you. My best to you and Sophie.
i think solving an electrical redundancy issue with another electrical component is a mistake especially on a boat. . i think i would prefer to use the wind vane where ever possible to to reduce electrical load especially if it did not compromise comfort.. im not a boat expert by any means but am a technician and know what these components are doing... what these components are doing is that they are working very hard... anything working hard needs love.
My auto pilot has been loved a long time. 38,000 miles to date. Works like the day it was first plugged in. I have a full rebuild kit on board taking up valuable space. The spare alternator is worth its weight in gold.
I've never commented before but I I've been watching you both from Adam and I think you've earned my respect. I tip my hat to Ryan for deciding to make the journey on his own. I use to leave from Montserrat to Anguilla on a 18 footer two engine open hull it was much fun. I use to pass through saint Maarten sometimes then head to blowing point. I hope one of these days when things free up again I may live to see you sail into Montserrat. I just hit the red button and turned it black so am official now. Hope you continue to enjoy it much love.
I'd be talking to the single hand racers to get some serious tips on sleeping. Some condition themselves to 20 minutes and try to sleep more during the day. Dicipline when you feel exhausted is key until you adjust.
Interesting video, Ryan on your passage prep. I'm looking forward to seeing the passage videos. You also have a great support team for weather, mental health, and Sophie and Sophie and Sophie 🙂. All the best...
Great video. Can't wait to see the rest of them and specially after crossing one with your review on how did this trip change each one personally and as a couple. Stay safe and healthy. Cheers
Pretty sound idea about the spare autopilot, given the cost and installation process for the wind vane. We have adopted your policy. Life jackets on deck, you wear them and that is not negotiable. Absolutely no decisions left to be made on that.
Wooh. I just listened to your interview in 59 north and am eagerly anticipating your vlogs about the trip. Well done 🙌🏼 and wish you (and Sophie) all the best as you work through the emotions (trying not do give away any spoilers)
'Popeye the sailor man' could be your new nick name? You made getting ready seem easy and am sure it was a good journey Ryan ...... With surprises along the way of course........ Can't wait to hear and see the rest of your experience on the High Seas.
Okej...solo över atlanten är något som jag dömmer om. Kan du under resan berätta om segel om natten..hur mycket ute..stänger du kajutan om natten ...downwind om natten..kanske drivankare och lite mer sömn..går och tänker på sådant. En vän seglade på 80 talet själv i 11 år och han bara gick och sov hoppades andra såg om d kom nära :)
Solo sailing is a hoot! Good luck with your adventure Ryan, and it'll be an adventure for Sophie too, you bet! I know what that shit...oops, shirt is! Sail on!
Without the item exploded on that shirt you'd be in deep doo doo. Thanks for another fine episode. Y'all two just keep getting better and better. Fond greetings from the piedmont of Georgia, USA.
I have several questions to ask about your solo adventure. 1. Did you tie a long trailing line behind Polar Seal in the event you accidentally slipped overboard? The idea of trailing a line behind the boat is a time honored one, mostly designed and implemented by solo sailors who dreaded falling overboard offshore and helplessly watching their boat sail away from them forever. This was especially true if the boat was rigged with any kind of self steering, preventing it from rounding up and coming head to wind if left unattended. 2. Did you make enough food to share meals with Helen? For later conversation 😁
Super episode Ryan and Sophie! If I were Ryan, leaving Sophie behind, I would be sad. But, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Good luck Ryan, and following seas!
Solo? Well, we know it may be "necessary" but it is still a major COLREGS violation and any maritime authority would be correct to arrest the vessel and the solo crew. Yes, the electronics and alarms have made this somewhat safer...but I'll try to stay diplomatic and say it takes big balls to do that trip. And I suspect Sophie will be exceptionally unhappy with this. I have meet commercial traffic that keeps NO watch, and seen the most obscure elelectronic failures. And can tell you firsthand that after five days of nearly no sleep, your body WILL go to sleep and stay asleep. Despite every alarm. Good luck, Ryan. Make sure to supplicate Poseidon and Aoleus for this blessings before you go.
It is a worry, but Jean Socrates hasn't been arrested yet, None of the mini transat guys have and the Vendee Globe will keep running and will be sponsored by all the big companies as usual. My problem is, I start dreaming while I'm awake. Also dreaming that I'm awake when I'm asleep. I've come across coal bulkers, not under command just drifting in the east Australia current with AIS turned off or broken. At least they left the lights on.
Sophie asks what he will miss about her. Ryan replies with something nice and loving. Ryan asks what she will miss about him. Sophie replies she will miss the sailing. 😆
Dude you are missing out on a wind vane. Complete game changer. Plus some models allow you to have a secondary/emergency tiller if you happen to run over a whale and rip off your primary rudder. It’s honestly more of a safety item than anything else. Definitely give it a strong second consideration.
Howdy William. Can you recomend one that is simplest to install? I have got davits and solar panels, so would need to fit under an be easy to remove to get the dinghy back up when in anchorages.
@@philgray1023 I have sailed extensively with Hydrovane throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Can’t go wrong! Dingy on the back can be tricky. We would put ours on deck and deflate/store accordingly. Talk to the manufacturer, they are a wealth of knowledge. But you can mount off center if that helps your cause. Fair Wind my friend
Is Ryan's shirt an exploded view of a toilet hand pump? Good luck and I can't wait to hear of that one particular event....You know what I'm talking about.
Look forward to seeing the rest of your adventure. Hope it was memorable. :-) P.S. Did you ever tell us the reason why Ryan is making the solo trip or is it none of our business?
All good! The next video depicts Ryan’s encounter with a migrant raft, 36 hours after his departure. It’s a hard one for us to put together (still very emotional for Ryan). So we are taking some time to make it “right”...
Great video. A lot I could learn. As you are going with a AP 24/7 - how much Amp does it draw hourly or on a daily base? I'm in the situation of having bought a 34ft boat last year and fitting it out for some cruising. Power consumption of the AP can be a hurdle for me as my daily consumption of Amps should not exceed 120Ah. Thats why I'm asking.
@@RyanSophieSailing You just need a bowsprit, a free halyard and a furler- see ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hs9xnaKvNOU.html It may still be a lot for a solo sailor!
We have been following your sailing adventures for a while. Now we are curious as to why are you taking this trip as a solo sailor? No doubt you are skilled sailor but crossing Atlantic solo is definitely not for the feint hearted.
Crumbs, too late to order the T-shirt in time for our Med-crossing in April :-( One question you could help me out with though: how did you fasten your lee cloth underneath the upholstery?
@@RyanSophieSailing OK, I should’ve asked 'where' 😉 I assume the settee on the Océanis 40 is similar to our Sun Odyssey 42 DS - very thin plywood. I can’t decide where to attach the grommets. Can you post a photo?
Mark, it was a bit of a mission but I did find some. I even went as far as contacting loyds of London to see of I could get special coverage but no luck. In the end I went with some half shady company.
There are a lot of choices that people make and that most of us don’t understand... it doesn’t mean they don’t have good reason 🙂 I once ran an ironman and asked myself all the way through why I was putting myself through this 😅
Number one. A SSB CB radio and one at home. You will get many many chances to communicate in the middle of any ocean. 2. A fiberglass repair kit. 3. A sextant. 4..A 12 volt car chest fridge in case the ship's fridge breaks. 5. Don't trust that stupid AIS. You might run into a chinese junk, the Exxon Valdiz, or another sailboat making a solo youtube. 6. Bring lots of extra limes in case you find a ship without extra limes.
Keeps scurvy away too! We had a SSB CB which would have been useful if i could speak, indonesian, malaysian, or any of the languages just obliterating every channel. It is much happier in the skip where it went.
@@RyanSophieSailing I did not mean to be critical; you are just very well prepared. I especially like the no falling overboard policy. I have done a fair bit of ocean sailing and can atest to the fact that once overboard, a person's chances are negligible. Lifejacket is useless; harness is a must.
it's interesting but the background story is becoming monotonous and predictable in 90% of his stories is to cross the atlantic from west to east and vice versa... There are hundreds of islands in the caribbean to explore and I think his story has abandoned those part
Bon voyage Ryan. Safe sailing. re: books on the arctic. I share that interest. Here are some books you might want to download from Audible (but I don't think they're all on Audible) : Four Against the Arctic David Roberts, In the Land of the White Death Valerian Albanov, The Long Walk Rawicz (an escape from the Soviet Gulag account -true but probably stolen from the guy who actually did it. Still an amazing story - not so good movie). Convoy! Drama in the Arctic Waters Paul Kemp (only for the deeply obsessed). Stalin's Slave Ships- not for periods of depression, As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me Josef M Bauer (German POW escapes from Kolyma) Cold - Bill Streever, Nights of Ice Spike Walker. Spike Walker is a Bering Sea fisherman, he tells many absolutely amazing stories about Capt Jimmy Ng of the U.S. Coast Guard rescuing fishermen off Alaska in horrendous weather. He writes about why you never step down into a life boat. Look for any books by Spike Walker. The Sledge Patrol: WWII Epic of Survival and Victory; and We Die Alone (evasion and self-amputation of frost bitten toes in Norway WWII) both by David Howarth, McGoogan, Ken: Fatal Passage : The Story of John Rae - the Arctic hero time forgot (He learned from the Inuit what happened to the Franklin Expedition and Charles Dickens slandered him. There's a museum on Orkney with his gear. He was with the Hudson Bay Company. There's another book Hudson Bay Company, but earlier: Ancient Mariner: The Arctic Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Inspired Coleridge's Masterpiece Ken McGoogan Berton, Pierre. The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909. Rando) Anything about Amundsen, Nansen or any other Norwegian (unlike the English these guys learned, did things right, and survived.) Varlam Shalamov Kolyma Tales - fiction but brilliant, he was also a Zek in the camps there. (All the inmates who survive the Kolyma Gulag talk about how beautiful it was, when it wasn't winter. Minneapolis has colder winter temperatures! American schooners traded along the Anydar coast of the USSR through the 1920s) Escape from Archangel Thomas E. Simmons - American Merchant Marine escapes to Sweden. I just pulled these from my bookcase, there's probably a lot more on Audible. And I've made snowshoes (terrible), an igloo, baidarka skin boat. A bit obsessive perhaps.
The long walk is completley rivetting! It was run on our talk radio every day. I would recommend the Shackleton expedition book "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing. It almost beggars belief that all of them survived. There are tough, intelligent, tenacious people, then there is Shackleton.