Kiwi Spirit arrives in Antigua

Fred delivered Kiwi Spirit to Antigua for handover on Sunday at 2:00 pm, just as I was touching down in Antigua on a flight from Miami… great timing. The debriefing was extremely helpful for here were three experienced sailors, led by Fred, who has previously soloed the North Atlantic. Getting to Antigua they spent 30 days at sea thinking about how best to sail this boat well. Their ideas for improvements to strengthen and for safety were much appreciated, and will be part of the planning going forward. The list of breakages, failures and about-to-fail grows.

Chief amongst the failures was that of the primary autopilot, which despite the three on-board and shore-based communications, they were unable to fix. Another breakage was that of the snuffing gear that snuffs the spinnaker before it is brought down into the deck. It really takes three to manage it well, and you might recall my snuffer broke upon raising it and then it blew out the sail. My efforts at getting it down resulted in a fall that cracked two of my ribs. Well, the second snuffing hoop broke on Fred's voyage, so that points more to a failure of the gears than of its handling - makes me feel a little better. One hydro-generator also failed, as did all the blades on one of hydro propellers, which again got stripped bare - it was plastic, so we shall revert back to aluminum.

I speak of these breakages for they were only the principal ones on a trip of 30 days, with modest weather and three crew. I will have some 150 days with just myself as crew, and thus can expect continued breakages. The need for spare parts is obvious. Redundancy is essential. Shore-based assistance crucial and still it will be a tough challenge, even in fair weather.

Steve, a well-established off shore sailor, and I are to head the 1,400 miles to St. Augustine. The boat will rest a little in St. Augustine before going up to Lyman Morse in Maine to begin making some very significant changes. More in a future blog.