I will never forget the incredible welcome on my return to the Solent after 37,000 nautical miles around the world. I sailed to 19 countries and 80 islands, incredible places such as the uninhabited coral atolls of the Tuamotu’s in the South Pacific, isolated villages in Madagascar and iconic landmarks such as the Opera House in Sydney Harbour, but nothing beats the sight of the Needles appearing on the horizon after 4 years and 2 months away.
Thank you to everyone that came out to greet me, both ashore and afloat. It was a special day and a perfect way to finish my voyage on the River Yar, surrounded by friends and family at the very place I learnt to sail in my Optimist dinghy all those years ago.
Some facts and figures from The Voyage of Fathom:
*Miles under the keel: 37,223.3
*Length of voyage (Yarmouth to Yarmouth):4 years, 2 months, 4 weeks and 2 days
*Intended length of voyage: 12 months
*Countries visited excluding territories: 19
*Islands visited: 80
*Best 24 hour run under sail: 167 nautical miles (South Atlantic)
*Best 24 hour run under sail and engine: 201 nautical miles (Mozambique Channel)
*Total number of days where Fathom was on the move: 524
*Total nights alone at sea: 272
*Longest passage: Panama to the Marquesas, 4,000 nautical miles
*Longest time alone at sea before making landfall: 5 weeks and 3 days
*Max wind speed encountered: 49.5 knots (East Coast Australia)
*Longest time spent hove to. 3 days straight
*Fastest speed over the ground: 12.6 knots
*Largest number of people onboard for drinks: 14
*Largest number of people from one nationality onboard at the same time: 11 Norwegians
*Largest number of people sleeping onboard: 5 during the Panama Canal crossing (cosy)
*Number of times I had to jump overboard at sea to clear rope or net from the propeller: 4
*Number of times I was seasick: 0
*Number of times a meal ended up on the cabin floor: 7
Then and Now:
Unexpectedly, my stay at Cocos Keeling has provided a sad reminder of how polluted our oceans really are. At a brief glance this place looks just like it does in the tourist brochures – beautiful turquoise waters and palm tree fringed white sand beaches. But after I took a stroll along the beach at Direction Island a few days ago the reality stared me in the face. Mountains of plastic strewn along the high tide mark and in the most concentrated areas stacked over 50cm high. Not a few isolated patches but all along the south and east facing beaches. Even during one snorkel session I saw some plastic caught on coral a couple of metres under the surface. This plastic waste does not come from the local population, in fact there is a serious recycling effort going on here and beach clean days are organised every so often, the source is Indonesia and South East Asia with the pollution being carried by the ocean currents. Quite rightly, us yachties have to take all our rubbish away with us.
The anchorage at Direction Island is nearly a 2 nautical mile dinghy ride from the next island, Home Island, which supports the Islamic Malay population. There are absolutely no facilities at Direction Island except a few shelters and a large rain water tank which is not potable but good for do it yourself laundry and shower water. A trip to Home Island is required to clear in and out with the Police, visit the one supermarket, obtain drinking water and diesel and find some internet on the wifi hotspot. A ferry only runs only twice a week from Direction to Home Island so most the time I have taken the dinghy which is quite an adventure punching into 25 knot+ plus headwinds and choppy water. Coming back with 100 litres of water in jerry cans and a large amount of food the other day was a good test for the 2.5hp outboard! The Malay people are extremely friendly and helpful and seem very content with their island life. The only other inhabited Island at Cocos is West Island where the Aussie expats live. This is a longer ferry ride away from Home Island and due to the difficulty in matching the ferries from Direction to Home to West and the lively weather I never managed to get over there. Apparently the only thing I have missed out on is the liquor store!
Despite seeing the scale of the pollution here it has been an enjoyable stay and a nice respite from the uncomfortable waves of the Indian Ocean. The perfect place to recharge the batteries before the long miles ahead. There have only been three or four other cruising yachts in the anchorage but a great bunch and new friends I hope to bump into again down the line. We have shared dinners, cold beers, movie collections and snorkel sessions and it has been good fun. Wherever I end up, I always seem to meet great people and for me, more than the places I visit, this is the best part about voyaging by sailboat.
My intention had been to sail from here to the island of Rodrigues with later stops at Mauritius and Reunion before a 1,400nm voyage direct to Richards Bay in South Africa, passing south of Madagascar. But on the advice of other yachties and particularly Des Cason, the generous and extremely helpful ex-cruiser and now weather guru, I have changed my plans. I will sail directly from Cocos to NW Madagascar passing over the northern tip. This is the best part of 3,000nm and a month at sea. After spending a few weeks cruising down the NW coast of Madagascar i’ll hop across and down the Mozambique Channel to SA. This route will provide more places to shelter from the strong SW fronts that blow through on average every 3 or 4 days. If I had stuck to my original plan there would have been no where to hide. I’m looking forward to getting this next long stretch out the way and seeing what Madagascar has to offer. Fathom is full to the brim with food, water, diesel and most importantly I have two new jars of Marmite and Branston Pickle in the stores, a couple of tasty and hard to find reminders of home!
After an amazing time in beautiful New Zealand I returned to Fathom at the end of February well rested and refreshed. The break from the boat was just what I had needed. Back in November, after eighteen months living aboard, and having sailed over half way round the world I was tired, a bit worn out and couldn’t shake some negative thoughts out of my mind with regards carrying on the voyage. At one stage I even contacted a local yacht broker about selling the boat but after some space and time away it became clear to me that I was too attached to Fathom to let her go. I had invested so much time and money in the boat and realised I didn’t want the adventure to be over yet.
Despite being slightly overwhelmed with how much I had to do I got stuck in with renewed vigour to the growing job list. The engine received it’s 500 hour professional service (at 700 hours!), the sails were overhauled by the local sail loft and Fathom received some nice new rigging. The old wires were nearly ten years old and after the forestay had broken in the South Pacific I decided, despite the cost, that it would be a good idea to get everything replaced. With the mast down it was a perfect opportunity to finish the strengthening of the mast step area which I had started from inside the cabin back in Raiatea. The existing mast step fitting which was badly deformed was removed and the fibreglass was peeled back to reveal several large voids. With the help of a local shipwright and his collection of tools the plinth area was rebuilt with fibreglass and a 12mm alloy plate and new step installed. A super strong setup and better than the day Fathom came out the yard I hope.
After returning to the boat I had noticed quite a strong smell of diesel in the cabin and it became apparent that there was a leak from the diesel tank. Having squeezed into the cockpit locker to access the back of the tank I could see drips from the connection between deck filler hose and the tank. The wrong type of plastic hose had been installed unbelievably, probably original, and as it was not resilient to diesel it had failed over time. Very uncomfortable job to replace due to lack of space but now thankfully no more leaks and no more bad smells. Other jobs I carried out included replacing the water and deck fillers, rebuilding the Aries self steering paddle, servicing the outboard, installing a new head pump, installing a higher spec bilge pump, polishing and waxing the topsides and cabin, painting the cockpit non slip, flushing and cleaning the water tanks and washing all the spare sails including storm jib which had a thick salt crust, a leftover from the wild arrival into Australia.
One of the most satisfying jobs was coming up with a solution to the gas bottle dilemma and saving a load of money. Australia is very strict on which gas bottles can be refilled and unfortunately no one will refill the blue European Campingaz bottles I have onboard. The vented gas locker on Fathom is built around the dimensions of two Camping Gaz bottles so larger bottles don’t fit in. I was put in touch with a marine gas ‘expert’ who came to the boat and was all doom and gloom and told me the only option was to pay him $450 to install a new large Aussie bottle on deck with new regulator and hose. Seemed extortionate to me so after a trip to the local BBQ factory I found one type of local bottle that would just squeeze in the locker if I turned the regulator upside down (it still works) and cut off half of the wheel which clamps it in place. Total cost $50 including bottle and no need to lash a bottle on deck. Gotta love a good bodge.
I can’t say I massively enjoyed my time in Pittwater. Despite it being a very picturesque place, great for leaving the boat for the season with good yachting services, I found it lacked soul and atmosphere and was basically a centre for east coast wealth, multi million dollar waterfront properties and bays full of yachts on moorings used one weekend a year. The yacht club appeared snooty to cruising sailors and the local pub was very clicky and filled with girls plastered with makeup teetering on high heels and gents wearing neatly pressed white trousers and suede shoes. I felt a bit out of place in my diesel stained shorts and holed t-shirts and longed to be back mixing with cruisers in low-key bars where barefeet are the norm! A trip down river would take me past five or six boats belonging, or previously belonging, to cruising friends from the South Pacific who had now finished with their trip, listed their boat for sale with the broker and returned to their land lives. It was quite strange and a little sad seeing these familiar boats now empty while remembering all the good times onboard last year. I did however meet some local cruisers who have sailed up and down the east coast several times and their enthusiasm for the coast north of Bundaberg and inside the barrier reef has been infectious and I am really excited about what lies ahead. They have been a valuable source of local knowledge and recommendations and I am so grateful to Dave, Shane, Georgia and Ross for all their thoughts and encouragement.
By the end of March I had been granted a Subclass 600 Australian Visa which allows me to stay in the country without having to leave every 3 months to activate another 3 month stay. That would have been a nightmare while trying to sail up the east coast and then across to Darwin. Most of the big jobs were out of the way and it was a case of waiting for a good weather forecast before heading down the coast to Sydney Harbour to sail past the Opera House and under the Harbour Bridge and get THAT photo! Time to get moving again.
Staying south – Days 18 to 25
The entry in the log for the 3rd April begins with “PISSED OFF!” The Aries paddle had flipped up twice in the night and I was tired. On one occasion it flipped up and I hadn’t woken up so for two hours Fathom was heading S.E away from the Marquesas! The latest weather advice showed the S.E trades much further south than normal too but at least there was wind in our current location, albeit squally conditions and an uncomfortable sea still. The huge bunch of bananas which I had separated into three sections to prevent them all ripening at once ignored me and all ripened together within 24 hours. Never eaten so many bananas at one sitting.
On the 20th day at sea all the remaining bananas had gone to mush and I ate the last of the Grapefruit so no fresh fruit remained. On the veggie front sweet potatoes last for ages as do onions and garlic but the peppers, carrots etc don’t so these had already gone in the pot. The next day marked 3 weeks at sea, by far the longest time I had been alone. The Atlantic crossing had only been 17 days. The wind was down to 10 knots, the sea much calmer and my spirits so much better that I baked some chocolate brownies.
Over the next few days the sea became uncomfortable again and there were still squalls but less frequent and with less intensity. I spent a lot of time reading and trying to learn the harmonica. Most the time I was pulling the tow generator behind to keep the batteries charged but when I pulled it in the fishing line went out. No luck but there must be some big fish out there as I lost two lures one day.
Tradewind sailing, kind of – Days 26 to 38
Blue skies, small cotton wool clouds and 10 to 15 knots of wind, the tradewinds at last! Days 26 to 28 were really nice. Decent progress and pleasant sailing. I slept well at night and the Aries behaved. Sleeping wise I would go to bed at around 23.00 and stay in the bunk until about 6am, waking every 2 or 3 hours to check the course which I can do on the Ipad without getting up. Since leaving Perlas I had only seen one other yacht and two ships had appeared a long way off on the AIS but not within sight. Mornings would usually be spent doing a Suduko over a coffee and every couple of days baking some fresh bread. I spent relatively little time outside the cabin on deck due to the heat and sun.
From Day 28 the wind gave up and on several occasions Fathom was completely becalmed with the sails banging back and forth. By day I used the cruising chute to try and gain an extra knot or two. The tow generator created too much drag and wasn’t deployed so I had to run the engine every couple of days to charge the batteries as the solar panel couldn’t keep up. I decided to turn off the fridge to save power which meant sacrificing quite a bit of cheese sadly. I used as much as possible by having a pizza evening! After 4 weeks at sea I was very excited by the sight and smell of freshly baked pizza coming out of the oven.
There was now about 1000 nautical miles to go. I tried not to look at the eta because it changed so much depending on current conditions and boat speed that it was pointless but my mind began to wander a little to thoughts of landfall. Daily runs suffered in the light winds and ranged from 74 to 92 miles. In truth though I felt in no great hurry to make landfall. I was in a bubble and enjoying the solitude. Not once did I feel lonely or wish I wasn’t out there in the big blue.
On day 31, the 16th April, there was one of the most amazing moments of the voyage from the UK so far. I was sat on the foredeck with a cup of tea waiting for the sunset which I always did if conditions allowed. I noticed a pod of dolphins in the distance racing towards Fathom. There was about 12 knots of wind so we were sailing along quite well. These dolphins numbering at least 20, were particularly playful and keen to show off. They revelled in Fathoms bow wave twisting and turning right alongside while other decided to jump into the air or slap their tails on the surface alongside the boat. Here I was, alone, thousands of miles from land with unexpected company. I had a front row seat for the mid pacific sunset dolphin extravaganza! As the sun set they became even more expressive and somehow I managed to capture one of them, mid jump, leading me west towards the setting sun. A moment I will never forget.
Day 32 marked one month at sea.. On the food front despite turning the eggs every day most of the remaining few had gone bad. I baked a cake with the last three good ones. The wind hovered around 8 to 10 knots and the cruising chute was flown during the day. I discovered the Scrabble App on the Ipad which I had forgotten I had and which provided great entertainment for the remaining days at sea as I tried to beat the AI on expert mode. Important to keep the grey matter active.
On the 19th April, day 32, I woke up at 2am to the sails banging about and 0.2 knots of wind and a speed over the ground of 0.1 knots. Most of the next 24 hours was spent motoring and waiting for the wind to return. Every attempt so far had been made to conserve fresh water. Washing dishes was done using salt water and I didn’t wash as much as I would have had there been crew onboard! So every time a heavy rain shower came over I would rush on deck, strip off, grab the soap and shampoo and receive a free shower. Latest weather forecast showed good winds coming which should push Fathom the remaining 500 miles to Fatu-Hiva.
The last days were very pleasant with the wind ranging from 10 to 15 knots. Speed was slow though and I guessed the hull was very fouled. Peering over the stern I could see a harvest of goose barnacles along the waterline. I decided to head to Fatu-Hiva, the most windward and reportedly beautiful of the Marquesas islands. It is not possible to check in to French Polynesia here and other yachts have been fined for stopping here first in the past but I decided to risk it and avoid the long beat to windward to come back later.
On the 24th April, 38 days after departing the Perlas Islands I spotted land at 06.30. As Fathom swallowed up the remaining miles to Fatu-Hiva the volcanic peaks of the island made a beautiful sight. The only suitable anchorage when translated is called the ‘Bay of Virgins’ and the anchor went down at 15.30 local time. Fathom and I had reached South Pacific Paradise!
There were six other yachts in the anchorage including a French solo sailor who came across in the dinghy to say hello, the first person I had seen in a long time. I invited him onboard for a cold beer ( I had purposely turned the fridge back on several hours before). He told me he had arrived here the day before in his aluminium 36 footer after taking 45 days from Panama. I couldn’t help feeling rather smug! Well done Fathom 🙂
It would have been nice to stay longer in the beautiful Perlas islands but as Fathom was full to the brim with fresh food and the forecast showed some good north east winds for a few days I was keen to set off on the 3971 nautical mile voyage to the Marquesas as soon as possible. After a trip up the mast for a last check Fathom was on the way out of the anchorage early afternoon on the 17th March when I spotted two people in a small dinghy waving frantically to me in the distance. It turned out they were a young American couple who had just been spear fishing on the reef and had guessed I was off to the South Pacific, probably by Fathom’s incredibly low waterline. They had wanted me to take a fresh fish they had just caught and passed up a good sized red snapper all gutted and ready for the pan. A nice send off and another example of kindness from fellow cruisers. They would be the last people I would see in five and a half weeks.
Perlas to the Galapagos region – Day 1 to Day 9
It turns out that the most consistent wind and fasted progress of the whole voyage occurred during the first couple of days. Sustained 15 to 20 knots of breeze, the remainders of the Caribbean tradewinds, and a tail current enabled Fathom to roar along at 6 knots at times. Due to the high amounts of shipping in the bay of Panama I slept in short chunks at night and used the AIS and radar alarms to keep a look out. By the third day the wind was under 6 knots and the cruising shute was deployed. This is the big asymmetric spinnaker which I use in winds under about 12 knots but never fly at night in case there is a squall or it gets wrapped. On the fourth day I spotted another yacht on the horizon but couldn’t raise them on the VHF for a chat.
chasing rainbows
The wind was still under 10 knots during the 5th day but a current of nearly 2 knots enabled 24 hour runs of close to 100 nautical miles. It was on day 6, when becalmed, that I made the spontaneous decision to swap the sails over. The yankee headsail was swapped for a new and unused downwind headsail and the mainsail swapped for a well used but serviceable second hand one I had purchased for £150 as a spare before leaving the Island. The idea being I could save the primary sails from UV light damage and from banging about in the calms to come. It took nearly all day to remove the mainsail, battens, reefing lines and get it stowed (not easy to get it neatly packed into the bag alone!) and the replacement bent on and single line reefing setup adjusted accordingly.
The wind remained very light during the 6th and 7th days but I was reluctant to use the engine due to the need to save the diesel for calms later in the voyage when there would not be favourable current. The cruising shute was deployed in the daylight hours and at night the mainsail and poled out headsail. One notable change was the increase in cabin temperature as we approached the equator. The cabin thermometer regularly showing temperature of up to 42 degrees! I was constantly drenched in sweat, day and night, and without any real wind it was very uncomfortable onboard. Everything inside was sticky and it was generally not too pleasant.
At last a better breeze on the 8th day with 12 knots from the north east and I was in great spirits. During the afternoon Fathom crossed the equator for the first time. Second time for me having crossed 10 years ago when sailing from Hawaii to French Polynesia on yacht Babelfish. I toasted Neptune by tossing him some Balboa lager and enjoyed the remainder of the can myself. I never drink at sea so this was a rare treat. It felt great to be in the southern hemisphere and I remember feeling that I really was a long way from home. As part of the celebration of being in the south I decided to bake a cake later in the afternoon by cheating and using a pre mix pack. However it turned out like a chewy rubber mess which was most disappointing and it was inedible.
What a difference a day makes. On day 9 there was less than a knot of wind and Fathom was crawling along at 2 knots with the current. A real game of patience in these conditions and with over 3,000 miles still to go to the destination I couldn’t help thinking, however unrealistic, that we might be at sea for months and soon i’ll be so low on fresh water i’ll be performing rain dances on deck. I had never properly got to grips with the fuel consumption of the engine since it had been installed in October so spent a bit of time working out how many hours I could motor on the fuel capacity I was carrying and various RPM levels and reckoned on about 450 miles max. Resorted to motoring for several hours during the afternoon to make some meaningful progress and myself feel better. The south east tradewinds still at least 500 miles away to the south.
During the night I was very close to the Galapagos islands and as the sun rose the next morning I could just make out the outline of Isla Cristobal on the horizon. It was a shame to give these islands a miss but the cost for visiting yachts are in the thousands of dollars and the regulations stipulate the underwater hull must be entirely clean and the cabin fumigated. Fathom was completely becalmed during the next night so I dropped all the sails and went to bed leaving Fathom to drift south with the current at 1.5 knots. I later received a few messages from people asking if everything was ok as they had seen low speeds on the tracker map and were worried something bad had happened!
Over the next days I noticed a significant increase in bird and animal activity. I was visited by blue footed boobies who flew constantly in loops around the boat, especially at night when they loudly squawked and looked like they were trying to land on the mast but never did. Lots of dolphins by day. I awoke one night to the sound of flapping sails and the boat wildly offcourse. After going on deck the cause became apparent. A bird had decided to perch on top of the wood paddle of the self steering gear for a rest. Why on earth it chose to sit there when it had the mast and the rest of the boat is beyond me.
Galapagos region and south to the trades. Day 10 to Day 17
At this time the weather forecast and free routeing advice emailed weekly from a forecaster in New Zealand was not overly encouraging. A convergence zone had formed south of the equator between the Marquesas and the Galapagos islands with big squalls, thunder storms and calms. Furthermore there was now a river of east going current, the equatorial counter current, running between 2 degrees and 6 degrees south, west of the Galapagos. The recommendation for yachts heading to the Marqueasas was to avoid the direct route, cross the foul current as quickly as possible then head right down to 12 degrees south to find the tradewinds before turning directly to the Marqueasas. A much longer distance.
The journal reminds me that day 10 was quite successful in the galley. An excellent cake baked, fresh loaf of bread and a sausage, carrot and sweet potato stew in the thermal cooker. Good sailing in the day but little wind during the night. A small milestone on day 11 was that Fathom passed 91deg 30′.27W longitude and therefore was a quarter of the way round the world from Yarmouth!
Fathom was well and truly in the doldrums during days 12 and 13. Baking hot with not a breath of wind and a mirror like sea. Motored through the night which was miserable to try and get though the foul current as soon as possible. A couple of notable things on day 14 – the equatorial counter current was passed at last, signified by the speed over the ground increasing by a knot and I mastered the four hole draw bend on the harmonica!
I guess I wasn’t completely alone as technology in the modern age allows contact with others. A highlight each day was checking emails and reading messages from friends and family. Thanks to everyone who messaged me it was much appreciated. It was good also to exchange SMS messages via the sat phone with my friends Victor and Julie who left the Perlas islands one week after Fathom. We would compare weather conditions and fishing success rates and generally check everything was ok.
The night of 31st March I was woken up in the wee small hours to a squall so went on deck in the howling wind and heavy rain to put some reefs in the mainsail and roll in some headsail. A long standing problem, which I thought I had solved in the Cape Verdes, began to occur again around this time. The Aries self steering gear paddle began to flip up time and time again especially in bigger waves and wind. When this happens the boat veers off course and invariably this occurs in the middle of the night during a squall or when i’m fast asleep. The boat needs to be stopped and I hang over the stern with the boat hook to reseat the blade. It was not something I could really fix at sea because the cause was the swelling of two parts of the hinge so I made the best of it.
During the following days the sea became rough and very confused with swell from several directions. The motion of the boat was most uncomfortable and doing any task in the cabin difficult. To make it worse squalls regularly appeared from astern with wind going from 7 knots to 27 knots in an instant. Sleep was hard to come by at night so I was tired and lethargic during and not in great spirits. The Aries paddle flipped up numerous times which didn’t improve my mood. At least progress was reasonable with daily runs ranging from 110 to 121 nautical miles. Most of the days were spent catching up on sleep or reading.
