Sailing Links

Articles

Following a feature story last month, owner Frank Blair brings us the devastating news of his yacht's destruction during a refit at her build yard, just days before her re-launch.

Read the entire article here in PDF format. [7.4MB]

• Read pdf of Annie's Hill's story in the December 2007 Yachting World about Schooner Maggie B.

Sites

• Nautical architect who designed Maggie B: Nigel Irens
• Shipyard where Maggie B was built: Covey Island Boatworks
• Sails: North Sails
• Boat photographer in Aruba: Tim Wright
• Good reading: Boat International Magazines
• Our weather info resource: Landfall Navigation
• Our wireless network provider: Global Marine Networks
• Where we stayed in Bahia: Centro Nautico da Bahia
• Where we hope to stay in Cape Town: Royal Cape Yacht Club, South Africa
• A bit about schooners: Schooner Man

Commanders’ Weather Corporation
Monday, 07.31.2006

Route: Salvador, Brazil to Cape Town, SA
Depart: approx. 1200utc, Tue, Aug 1, 2006

Prepared: 1100utc Mon, July 31, 2006

Summary: high pressure timing could work well for your trip

• This morning, cold front can be seen on satellite near Caravelas (about 1730S on the Brazilian coast)
• South of the front are S winds of 15-25kts to just N of Cabo Frio (E of Rio de Janeiro)
• Cabo Frio and S to 40S, winds turn out of the SW at 20-40kts, bringing the cold and blustery air N
• The low pressure (944 MB) associated with this cold front is now located near 60S/20W.

• it is expected to slowly slide off to the E and SE this week
• allowing the cold high pressure sitting over N Argentina to ease off the coast and be centered over Buenos Aires by 12utc on the 1st

The NE extent of this high will stretch to near 25N/25W on the 1st as it fills in behind the cold front that is pulling off to the E

• Leaving SE-SSE winds, along the N side of the high, for your departure and first couple of days of travel S along the coast

Weaker, smaller lows will spiral clockwise around the main low into next week:

• The first of these lows is expected to intensify near 48S/32W by 00utc on the 3rd
• Looks like this low will be strong enough to bring the high pressure toward the NE and off the coastline behind the low's cold front

By 12utc on the 6th, the high is expected to be near 30S/35W with N winds building along your route.

See routing below

Long range fcst shows 1027MB high centered near 28S/18W with a low near 40S/40W and a stronger low near 52S/3E around 00utc on the 16th:

• with you in between the high and the eastern low in some sort of W-WNW wind
• allowing you some leeway to head further N, closer to the center of the high, if winds and seas become too difficult

Routing

Recommend a course S along the Brazilian coast to about 20S:

• with the center of the high centered near 28-30S, expect you'll have to continue S to 28-30S to get into the more favorable N-NW winds on the back side of the high next week
• then head on a mainly E course around the 6th , staying W of the center of the high, as it also slides to the E
• should eventually be able to remain in favorable winds in the W, SW and S side of the high

Have kept your routing around 200 nm/day.

Wind Forecast

Wind directions are TRUE, wind speeds in KTS, and time is UTC

Mon, July 31 - offshore Salvador

18: 130-150/8-15

Weather: Partly cloudy

Seas 3-6ft

Tue, Aug 1

00: 120-140/6-14

06: 130-150/ 8-15

12: 140-160/10-17

Approx. departure

18: 130-150/12-20

Weather: Variably to partly cloudy, chance isolated showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 30kts. Seas building to 5-8ft , light S-SE swell.

Wed, Aug 2

00: 120-150/8-14

06: 130-150/12-20

12: 130-160/14-22

nr Belmonte (16S/38 40W)

18: 120-140/15-23

Weather: Variably to partly cloudy, chance isolated showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 30kts. Seas 5-8ft, light S swell.

Thu, Aug 3

00: 110-130/10-18

12: 100-120/12-20

nr 19 10S/39 30W

Weather:Variably cloudy with increased chc showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 30kts. Seas slowly building to 7-10ft during the day, mainly in increased S swell.

Fri, Aug 4

00: 130-160/13-22

12: 160-180/15-23

nr 22 30S/39 30W

18: 130-150/10-18

Weather:Variably cloudy with scattered showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 35kts Seas 7-10ft, S swell.

Sat, Aug 5

00: 110-130/12-20

12: 090-110/10-18

nr 22 30S/39 30W

Weather: Variably to partly cloudy, isolated showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 30kts. Seas 7-10ft, S swell

Sun, Aug 6

0: 030-060/12-18

12: 360-020/15-23

nr 29S/39 30W

Weather: Variably cloudy, increased chc showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 35kts. Seas 7-10ft, S swell.

Mon, Aug 7

00: 340-360/8-14

12: 330-350/10-18

nr 29S/35 20W

Weather: Variably cloudy with isolated showers/squalls. Possible gusts to 25-30kts. Seas 7-10ft, S swell.

Welcome to Lieve’s Blog!

This is the blog of Lieve Berghmans, crew member aboard the Maggie B. Lieve joined the crew in Salvador, Brazil and will crew on the journey to Cape Town, South Africa.

Welcome to Bart’s Blog!

This is the blog of Bart Gabriel, crew member on the Maggie B, traveling from Salvador Brazil to Cape Town South Africa.

Saying Goodbye to Brazil | Sunday, 07.30.2006

Now in full prep mode.

Everybody had prepared for a big complicated trip and checked and double checked their packing and supplies. A big crossing is just like that — but more complicated.

In talking about the Iraq war, Don Rumsfeld said something about the "Known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns." We are just there. We know to check all the rig for wear and loose pieces, we know to change the oil and filters, we know to prep the emergency bilge pump, we know to practice rigging the storm sails, we know to load food for 30 days plus everybody's "comfort' food (chocolate!), we know to watch the scary lows rolling off the Pampas into the Southern Ocean, we know to calibrate backup GPS's (12 foot difference!), but how do you prepare for the surprises? Sharpen your knives, get extra sleep and listen to lots of advice.

One fun sign that we should start saying goodbye to Brazil (we arrived in Natal almost five weeks ago!), and think about Africa was meeting a neat couple, Allan and Anya, who had come in from South Africa on their boat. They traded us a South African courtesy flag for a case of beer. Now we are ready!

We are going to have an very interesting series of challenges to pick the right course.

Anyone who wants to follow our passage can get the same weather we are looking at by going to www.globalmarinenet.net and getting a GRIB viewer and then following their instructions to download a GRIB file of our position. SSAtlantic gives the whole South Atlantic or you can focus in on the weather around a specific position. It gives present weather as well as forecasts. I will also post the information that we get from Commanders Weather as to strategic and tactical weather advice. The challenge is that there is a perfect spot with great winds to move us marvelously to Cape Town, but too far south and you get hammered and too far north there is no wind. East to say, but the systems are moving shockingly fast, so you have to position yourself waaaay before the systems arrive. We go 150 to 200 miles a day. The systems move at least twice as fast.

Experienced Sailors, All

The moon is getting fuller every night which should make night watches much nicer. We have a very strong crew, all four of us are experienced Blue Water Sailors, all Shellbacks. With four, we can each do only three hour watches during the night. Positive luxury, though I expect that there will be some nights when we all will be up. Looking at the Pilot Charts (downloadable from th Internet from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency; Pilot Chart of the South Atlantic Ocean; August), we will be running along the line that is the northern limit in August (record from 1772!) of Glacier Ice, plus the line that has a historic record of having waves over 12 feet 30 percent of the time. The Maggie B can do 10.5 knots at hull speed. We'll see what she can do surfing!

From Salvador, All is well.

To learn Portuguese takes two translations…

Few people realize how difficult it is to learn Portuguese. Few understand that it takes TWO translations, first from Portuguese to English, and then to the real meaning.

Thus:

• Portuguese=English=Meaning
• Agora=today=tomorrow
• Amanha=tomorrow=next week
• nao problema=no problem=it is complicated
• Esta sabado=this saturday=next wednesday

But it is mostly fun along the way.

Location: 12° 53.5 S, 37° 41.1 W
Wednesday 12:00, 07.26.2006

We finally have Reepicheep back from its Brazilian makeover. She looks good and has only lost a little of her panache and gold paint, but her broken frames are now sistered and her hull looks less like a beater.

We are off this afternoon to head to the island of Itaparica.

We should be anchored tonight at 12° 53.3 S, 038° 41.1 W. Itaparica is the weekend escape for many Salvadorians. It is one of the 56 islands in the 1000 sq.km bay, and was the headquarters of the Dutch in 1711 and then was the base for Bahian independance in 1823. For us it is a break from the bright lights of Salvador and the Pelo (the old town with all the restaurants, bars, music, and dancing in the street).

Itaparica also has the Font da Bica, a famous mineral water fountain, founded in 1842. We hope to fill our tanks there for the crossing. We will rendezvous with Bart and Livet and their boat, Plume d'Ange, and further our plans and timing for Cape Town.

Read another new entry in Still Learning...

All is well.

Music heard on board lately

We have a great sound system on, which includes a Sony CD/Tuner/XM Radio system with Bose speakers.

The XM Satellite Radio system worked great... up North. Not now.

CDs are great, and having friends send some is marvelous, but much of what we listen to is off my iPod which has days of music from our CDs and others.

We often have music at sea around noontime/lunch time, but other times, if we are going 24/7 it is inappropriate to put sounds on high when it might be someone else's treasured nap time. In port certainly we have lots of music, especially at sunset.

Right now, some of our favorite music includes:

Yo Yo Ma €” Appalacian Journey

Pink Martini €” Hang on Little Tomato and Sympatique

Paul Simon €” Concert in the Park

Jimmie Buffett €” everything

kd lang €” Hymns of the 49th Parallel

The Neill Sisters €” everything

Nora Jones €” everything

Music from Garden State (the movie)

Late night watches have passed quickly when we've listened to NPR's Driveway Moments CD which is the compilation of the best NPR audio stories, which range from 15-25 minutes. Marvelous for the Midnight to 4AM watch!

New crew, new J-Prop, and a new destination | Sunday, 07.23.2006

A lot going on with the Maggie B

The Schooner Maggie B hasn't moved much in the last two weeks, but lots has been going on. Certainly lots of exploring all the parts of Salvador. We have been hauled out and back in again, and have a new J-Prop to replace the one that went to swim with the fishes somewhere between Barbados and Natal.

We've cleaned off all marine growth so we are again in a "go fast" mode.

Work on the boat has included plugging the usual minor leaks, checking and replacing some rigging pieces (see photos of feeble Lewmar block and the new Antal in the previous post), finally getting fresh secondary fuel filters for both the engine and the generator, off loading our failed cloths washer (we are trying to find a traditional wash board), getting more minutes for the Iridium Sat phone, etc., etc. Brazil is marvelous, but everything takes more time and inevitably has complications.

One big step now is getting Reepicheep fixed up. Reep is our tender and was marvelously made by two apprentices at the Rockland, Maine ApprenticeShop (www.atlanticchallenge.com) from a Mystic Seaport "Moosabec Reach Wherry" design of the Whitehall class. She has been admired from Nova Scotia to Brazil. The varnish needed redoing and the hull paint has had a few too many insults. I also mixed up the jib lead one night when Reep was on deck, and the jib sheet seriously wore into the hull in two places. So she is out for a Salvador makeover, and was due back yesterday so that we could go exploring the huge Baie de Todos Santos. But now it is "maybe tomorrow." Sigh.

But the exciting news is that we are now crewed up for the trip to South Africa with excellent hands!

A week ago, when we were in the Bahia Marina waiting to be hauled, we saw a nice little sloop arrive with a obviously fatigued crew of two. She was the Plume d'Ange, a Belgium boat, just in from the Azores with a couple, Bart and Livet, sailing her. We got talking and have stayed connected as we both moved over to the Centro Nautico. Bart and Livet are in their late 20's and are both maritime professionals, now off on a sailing holiday/leave. She runs the huge dredges that replaced the beach at Acapulco after the hurricane, or the levees in New Orleans. He is the mechanic for the supertugs that can hold a drilling station on position in a hurricane within a few centimeters.

They became interested and then excited about the Maggie B and the trip to Cape Town. After a few dinners together on the Maggie B and the Plume d'Ange, we four felt that we had confidence in each other's plans, priorities and skills. The Plume d'Ange is going to stay in Salvador in a safe yacht club up the coast, get hauled and get new antifouling, and their genoa, which blew out on the way down, will be all remade by a local sail loft.

The route to South Africa from Salvador is an interesting one.

Hopefully not too interesting. If you go straight, the SE'erly trades are in your face the whole way, so the trick is to head south to pick up Westerlies. But not too far south, because this is winter here and the Roaring Forties is not just an expression. Also, as we go south, we will need to stay clear of the area around the Montevideo and Buenos Aries due to the winds they call the Pamperos, which has wrecked many a ship.

The logical route, south but not too much so, should take us past the island of Tristan da Cunha, where we should be able to resupply....potatoes. So, from Salvador, we will head south to SSE, depending on the winds, until we reach the westerlies, which should be about 25 or 30 degrees south. It is about 2000 miles to Tristan de Cunha on a heading of about 160 degrees, and then 1500 miles from T da C to Cape Town on a heading of 105 degrees.

In the Southern Ocean gales move around the world unrestricted. Prudent sailors "ride" the pressure gradients. If the glass is falling, go north, if it is rising, ease south. Lows, of course, rotate in the opposite direction from up north, but that is probably the only sure truth of the weather.

All is well.

Farewell!

After reaching Salvadore, I am leaving the Maggie B. I hope to someday return to crew again.

Goodbye Friends!