A personal account of how I achieved a personal goal of sailing across an ocean at modest cost. A brilliant experience I will always remember.
For anyone who relishes the idea of an adventure, a big sailing voyage is one of the classics. However, it can also seem a bit, well, inaccessible. Boats are expensive, sailing seems a daunting skill to learn, and then, there is the added fear of storms, whale strikes or pirates to overcome. The first two I experienced, fortunately not the third, and they weren’t that bad.
I was first inspired to sail the world when I read Robin Knox Johnston’s “A world of my own”. An account of his solo round the world non stop voyage on his plucky little wooden yacht Suhaili, which in 1969 was a historical first, but at the other end of the technology/cost spectrum than the other huge adventure of that year. An adventure classic that surely ranks up there with the best.
So in my twenties, with my future career direction still undecided, and with some savings from my web design job, I decided to see if I could realise a dream and “sail the oceans”.
options for an ocean crossing on a small yacht
There are a few most common options for sailing an ocean and I considered them all. Note: this is focused on making the trip in a “normal” yacht, typically 32-70ft, rather than a superyacht with a huge crew which in my mind would be a very different, and less adventure focused experience.
- Paying for passage. i.e. Joining one of the Ocean experience type trips, e.g. a leg of the Clipper Round The World race. Supposedly a brilliant experience but likely to cost £8k+ for a leg once you factor in all the training, flights etc.
- Buying a boat. The most expensive option and somewhat of a commitment. People do achieve ocean voyages on a shoestring and with suprisingly modest boats but to err on the side of caution you would still want to spend money on some training/ experience and the boat and fit out costs are realistically 20k+ (and at that starting price you are talking fairly hardcore and sometimes uncomfortable end of the spectrum)
- Doing it as working crew on a yacht/ extra crew for someone else crossing. Typically either as delivery crew or making up the crew numbers on someone elses crossing. e.g. an ARC crossing (The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers is an amateur ocean crossing rally which adds some community support and help to achieving this ambition for boat owners). This is the cheapest route to success but as ever there are tradeoffs.
I decided to opt for the third option with the following recipe:
- Do some basic sailing courses to gain basic skills
- Do some additional crewing to gain mileage
- Find a boat in need of crew for the big trip.
What sailing qualifications do i need to sail an ocean as crew?
You technically don’t need any qualifications. Yes, that’s right, anyone can go out there, buy a boat and cast off into the big blue. However most people would recommend gaining some training and experience.
In the UK at least sailing courses and qualifications are administered by the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) with the range of yacht sailing courses starting at Competent Crew (for total beginners) right up to Commerically Endorsed Ocean Yachtmaster (for those wanting to skipper yachts professionally).
In order to work as crew, which requires “watchkeeping”, i.e. the ability to sail the boat and keep watch independently, the step up from Competent Crew to Day Skipper is probably the bare minimum. It means you are trained to make decisions about sailing, not just acting as assistance, which is essential to be a useful member of a paid crew on a big voyage. The skipper needs to sleep too.
The “Day Skipper” course includes a theory and practical component and I completed mine as an end to end course over a week. Cost was equivalent to a small holiday, so in my case about £600 with all associated costs.
I did also complete a couple of additional 1 day courses, which are requirements for the commercially endorsed Yachtmaster, and I thought were valuable. A valid First Aid course, Sea Survival Course, VHF radio course (a legal requirement to operate the ships VHF radio). All of these are offered by RYA testing centres, sometimes as a bundle and typically around £100 each.
Building some mileage and finding a boat
The big trip, i.e. a translantic is unlikely to be the first trip you take as a newly qualified day skipper. I chose to complete a few smaller deliveries first, by looking for adverts for deckhands on the Crewseekers website. In the first instance I helped to deliver a boat back from Spain to the UK as part of a small crew. This gave me my first experience of night sailing alongside many other interesting insights as to what itis like on a boat at sea for more than a day trip.
After a few trips over the summer I felt ready to look for a boat for the Atlantic crossing. A popular time to sail across the Atlantic is late autumn, i.e. November, as the hurricane season is tailing off and before it gets to cold and horrible leaving Northern Europe. The Atlantic Rally for cruisers typically casts off from the Canaries in mid November.
In my case I found a delivery from Portsmouth to the Caribbean leaving early November and alongside the skipper and one other crew we slipped the mooring early one morning, setting off for the first leg which would take us non stop to Northern Spain. The boat was a Southerly 135, a 43ft lifting keel cruiser, which proved comfortable and robust in heavy weather. The key vices being, shallow rudders which I felt made her wander a bit in heavy downwind sailing, and she was a bit slow versus other boats of a similar size. But she also withstood some pretty heavy weather comfortably (Force 10, yikes) and I would happily take such a boat on big voyages again.
How long does it take to sail across the Atlantic?
This is a bit of a piece of string question. The variables of boat size, start point and weather, all play large roles. Typically the the crossing from the Canaries (a typical jumping off point) to the Caribbean is around 20 days. It took us 22, with a few becalmed and fairly slow moving boat.
We also took a couple of weeks to sail down to Las Palmas from Portsmouth, including a stop in Vigo to make a few minor boat repairs. All in all, my whole trip including the voyage to the Canaries, a few days in Vigo and Las Palmas, plus 4/5 days in the caribbean took about 6 weeks.
The costs of the trip
As a working crew member I wasn’t paid but had expenses covered. This included my flight back from the Caribbean and all food on board. Typically for a volunteer crew on an ARC crossing skippers might ask for a food contribution etc. So the trip itself didn’t cost me anything other than time (and a few beers in the Caribbean).
The route across the atlantic
Virtually all late autumn crossing from the Canaries to the Caribbean follow the classic tradwind route. By following this route you take advantage of the ocean currents and prevailing winds (the trad wind in this case) which will hopefully waft you neatly across efficiently and with largely good weather.
This route drops south west from Las Palmas towards Cape Verde before heading west at around 27 Degrees North. This takes you neatly in the direction of Antigua, a popular destination for arrival.
The experience. How hard is it to sail an ocean?
Once you have the sailing basics covered, so you can manouvre, trim the sails, set the autohelm, reef the sails (reduce size for heavy weather etc.) things are generally pretty relaxed during the crossing itself. Trade win sailing can actually be pretty boring at times. The sails are set and if the wind strength and direction stays pretty constant, which it can do for days, you spend a lot of time reading, and in our case playing scrabble.
Things that add to the difficulty are the unexpected. Heavy Weather, which shouldn’t land totally unexpectedly with modern comms, and things like bumping into a whale. Which we did but without any damage, other than too our current scrabble game.
The most difficult sailing moments were the couple of days of heavy weather we faced both in Biscay, and on the way between Portugal and the Canaries. The physical and mental toll of heavy weather sailing during the night especially is a bit draining, but again with a well prepped boat it’s more uncomfortable tan anything else.
Once in the trade winds, managing squalls is the other time of heightened activity. Typically spotted like comedy black clouds scudding towards you, a quick reef is often required as the wind speed can jump from a sedate 12kt to 30+ kts in seconds once the squall hits, and even if it only lasts a few minutes, you don’t want to break things. Once you have done it a few times adding a quick reef, and shaking it out again become second nature.
Sleep and watch keeping patterns
The thing I found personally hardest was probably the sleep pattern. There are many different recipes for sharing watch with a small crew at sea, the basic requirement being that someone should be alert and on watch at all times, which practically means checking the horizon at very least every 20 minutes or so. Depending on crew numbers you need to find a rotation system that allows everyone to rest, and also maintain a fresh crew.
Our skipper’s preference was a “3 on, 6 off” system. With a crew of three this meant the solo night watch shifts were either 9pm-12pm, 12pm-3am or 3am-6am. Initially I thought the 9-12 shift would be the best as then you could go to bed and have a nearly 6 hours sleep before rising for your next watch. In practice I found this the hardest as it meant getting to bed late and getting up early. With the 12-3 shift you could have a few hours sleep late evening and then also go to bed and sleep through to 9am and this left me feeling far more rested.
My biggest issue with this watch system was that it changed every night. i.e. you cycled through each watch in a 3 day cycle which meant there was no pattern to sleep and I think my body would have preferred more routine. Perhaps doing blocks of each rota of hours to maintain even fairness on watches, but also allow some routine to develop would work better. As Skipper I would probably do 4 days blocks using daytime hours where all are “on watch” to manage the rotation.
what to eat on an ocean crossing?
Provisioning for a big sailing trip has some differences from other expedition types. Typically with a three week crossing and limited refrigeration, you are less worried about weight but low bulk, ease of preparation and keeping fresh are the main considerations. So tins are in and fresh salad is out unless you have good electricity generation and a big fridge.
So fresh fruit and veg will generally only last the first week, with some exceptions, citrus fruits and onions will last a bit longer. Fresh meat is certainly a challenge, we caught plenty of fresh fish to supplement here. Tinned meats are not the best, using tinned curries, chilis etc. seems to offer a good chance to enjoy some red meat, or you miss it. Tip. As Knox Johnston found, tins can loose their labels, rattling around in cupboards and lockers, especially if any damp gets in, so writing on each tin lid with permanent maker can remove the tin lottery.
The 5 things I would definitely repeat as food tips are:
- Part baked bread rolls/ baguettes. With fresh bread unavailable the long life part baked bread you pop in the oven for a few minutes is heavenly on a long sea trip.
- Pickles and chutneys. As great as the fresh fish was, having a range of different sauces and chutneys to “spice things up” is a boon
- Fruitcake (or other packaged long life cakey bits). There is nothing like a little slab of cake with a cup of tea to lift the mood on a long night watch.
- Persevere with catching fresh fish. It really is worth the effort once you learn the technique.
- Tasty long life mediterranean treats. e.g. Jars of Olives, Chorizo sausage. Last well, add great flavour to most dishes.
How to catch fish when sailing
As mentioned above fresh fish is a great lift to meals. However from the forums it is clear that a lot of people struggle with catching fishing whilst sailing. The method below was shared by our experienced first mate and seemed pretty foolproof. Put it this way, we caught fish pretty much everyday on the tradewind crossing.
The two types of fish we caught using the method were Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and small tuna varieties. The rig used is a large single hook 6/0+ on a wire trace of at least 20″ with a heavy drilled lead bullet weight slid down to the hook, and a rubber quid lure slid down so the body fits over the lead weight. This is attached to a 50lb+nylon line on a handline.
Importantly the lure was trolled 200ft behind the boat. You need the distance both to allow the lure to sink and frankly trolled close to the boat we never caught. The extra line elasticity over 200ft possible also helps.
Also importantly, whilst we cleated off the handline, 6ft or so was then run forward and clipped into a small plastic hook tied to a bungee line attached to a stanchion. This both provided bite indication and also elasticity to help reduce the chances of bumping the fish off, or the rig getting smashed.
Using this method during the day we caught extensively and had fun in the process. Pink squid lures were probably the most successful for us.