Has anybody sailed the Atlantic

tankbarry

Just wondering has anybody sailed the atlantic ocean. Ireland to the states or Tenerife to Bahamas. I like reading about these stories if anybody has any can u post them up.. cheers

Fitz3

I did 2 crossings, from palma majorca to antiuga and palma to st marteen, 10 years ago in my early 20,s. Both trips took 13-15 days via gibraltar and tenerife averaging 10 kts. Both trips were on s.y. "Avance" a 110 ft jongert built in holland and owned by a scandi shipping magnet.
At the time I worked professionally on boats and we would winter in the carribean and summer in the med. Thems were the days!
Spent 7 years working full time at sea on various types of sail and power boats for wealthy yacht owners and had the time of my life.
The trips themselves are mind bending, 4 hrs on watch followed by 4 hrs off consistantly for 3 weeks can do strange things to your brain however the feeling of isolation being 1000,s of miles from land and the obligatory mid atlantic swim is almost like a detox for the soul. Sounds deep but you have experience it.
There was always a fair share of excitement, drifting ropes around the propeller, 2 x 60 ft hump back whales with seriously fishy breath alongside for 2 days, caught sail fish, tuna, marlin, salmonella poisning for 3 days, pirates, running out of fuel, tearing our main cruising sail 2 days after leaving Tenerife, disagreements between crew, ah the memories

Hifive

Wow, thats a life changing experience. Regular home life probably seems very tame!

I new a guy from home, (Dublin) who did the same job as a young fella, crewing on superyachts all over the world, but his story beats all.
Apparently they actually lost one in Biscay. A 130 ft motor yacht that suffered some kind of delamination of the hull from slamming in heavy seas and actually went down there and then. All hands to the life rafts and tender!
Scary sh1t.

fergal.b

Sounds like you lived my dream Fitz3 great story and way to live life for the time that you did.

Simarillion

Hi,
The crew I sail with in Galway raced across the Atlantic in November 2009, typically I was bogged down with exams but they had an amazing time.

It was the ARC race, and quite a few of the boats write blogs via satellite phones which make for good reading - especially two of them which were written by children on board.

This is the link to the blog part of the website
http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/dailylogs.aspx

Hope these are of some interest.
Sim

Skuxx

Fitz3 wrote: »

I did 2 crossings, from palma majorca to antiuga and palma to st marteen, 10 years ago in my early 20,s. Both trips took 13-15 days via gibraltar and tenerife averaging 10 kts. Both trips were on s.y. "Avance" a 110 ft jongert built in holland and owned by a scandi shipping magnet.
At the time I worked professionally on boats and we would winter in the carribean and summer in the med. Thems were the days!
Spent 7 years working full time at sea on various types of sail and power boats for wealthy yacht owners and had the time of my life.
The trips themselves are mind bending, 4 hrs on watch followed by 4 hrs off consistantly for 3 weeks can do strange things to your brain however the feeling of isolation being 1000,s of miles from land and the obligatory mid atlantic swim is almost like a detox for the soul. Sounds deep but you have experience it.
There was always a fair share of excitement, drifting ropes around the propeller, 2 x 60 ft hump back whales with seriously fishy breath alongside for 2 days, caught sail fish, tuna, marlin, salmonella poisning for 3 days, pirates, running out of fuel, tearing our main cruising sail 2 days after leaving Tenerife, disagreements between crew, ah the memories

How did you get into working full time at sea, what qualifications and training did you need? It's something I'd love to do! I spent a month in the baltic on a tall ship 2 summers ago and it was the best experience I've had so far!! Wouldn't mind spending a few years doing what you did!

Tabnabs

If you haven't heard of The Simple Sailor and the Jester Challenge, this is well worth a read

http://www.thesimplesailor.com/index.html

Fitz3

alan1990 wrote: »

How did you get into working full time at sea, what qualifications and training did you need? It's something I'd love to do! I spent a month in the baltic on a tall ship 2 summers ago and it was the best experience I've had so far!! Wouldn't mind spending a few years doing what you did!

I always loved sailing and wanted to become a captain from a young age. I had seen lots of big yachts while on holidays in med and dreamt of getting a piece of it. I did Marine Leisure Management for 2 years in cork after school and got a couple of basic qualifications like yacht master and power boat level 3, its best to have these if your thinking of working in the industry. After that I went to palma majorca and walked the quays and drank in the yachty bars asking for work.
I had imagned myself getting straight on deck of a large boat sailing around the world having the time of my life but the reality was very different. The hardest thing was to get my first job and I just barely scraped a stewards job on motor boat after spending 2 months searching. Cleaning toilets and serving rich people food was not what i had anticapated before leaving dublin but it was a job and we left for the caribbean the next day so I got on with it. The captain on this boat "Longo Mai" was a bollox to put it mildly but he had a fierce reputation for keeping his boat spotless and well organised. On nights off in the caribbean i would go for a few drinks, as you do, and people would ask how I could hack working for him but I knew if I stuck it out for a year I would have something credible on my cv. This proved to be my best move as I never had to look for another job, over the 12 months i met lots of crew and captains and they all said to me if I could handle working for my current skipper then would gladly give me a position on their boats once one came up. After longo mai, I got a job on a swan 86 but we had serious gear failure after I started and were staying put for the summer so I jumped ship to "Vana Of Cranborne" in Malta a 120ft motor boat as a deckhand. The captain got fired soon after and the first mate got promoted to captain and I got promoted to first mate which was great. After working as first mate for a year I got offered a stewards job on Aspasia Aplha a 136 ketch in palma. This was a boat I had aspired to work on and you had to start at the bottom so I was back being steward again. After 6 months I finally made it to deck level on sail boat cruising around the med. After 12 months of that I went to the south of england to do my captains tickets once I had accumalated 25,000 miles and couple of ocean passages. My father got ill after that, and this was before mobiles and internet, so I came back Ireland knowing that if i wanted to go back I could at any time now I had the qualifications and experience. I,m still here now with a kid on the way so going nowhere.
That was between in 1993-99 and its changed a lot since then. Most marinas and boatyards have tight security so its tough to get in but the bars are still a good place to start. There are plenty of crew placement websites online so check them out as well. Places like Antibe and Nice are good also but they are expensive to live in while trying to get work so I would still recommend Majorca. If you can get to the states Fort Lauderdale is good spot also.
It was without doubt the best thing I ever did and will be recommending it to my own kids. I could write a book on the things ive seen and places ive been. If you need hostel names, bars names and marina adresses let me know and I will gladly pass them on