This is a self-made documentary on sailing a small, 26ft Contessa 26 sailing boat, from Antigua in the Caribbean, to New York City. I took a direct route, ou...
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you
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I'm about 20 minutes away from pulling
up the anchor from here in English over
in Antigua and sailing a direct line on
stuff to New York City I'm a little bit
disappointed to be leaving so early well
probably a little bit more than a little
bit just gotta really so it's a long
haul up to New York City and it's going
to be really great once I get up there I
just really not looking forward to to
the voyage I just think it's going to be
really slow and there's going to be
really kind of light winds but then I
think you know some some is going
to blow through so um yeah we'll see
fingers crossed I just like the kind of
acyl free passage will just really don't
warn the asses once I get to New York
City either because the Americans mmm
don't make it easy for foreigners to
sail in their waters and it's probably a
bunch of technicalities they can get me
on if they really want to but I have
known they take pity on the poor go out
with the little boat as you sailed 1,500
miles from the Caribbean so this is it
and
yeah let's see end of paradise
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you
just had a cool conversation with this
the guy on watch or the captain I don't
know of this this tank of we shout it on
I've got it on tape but uh he's
Bulgarian and he welcomes me to Bulgaria
to sail in the Black Sea
he's uh he's barreling directly to
Rotterdam right now so he's going to
know pretty much where I came from so
the first of June 2008 and we're almost
at a latitude with with Miami and it's
6:30 in the morning and it's pretty
light airs but it's been really the most
amazing sale so far it's just been
really Pleasant and nice winds on the
theme
um nice weather the first couple of days
we had a tropical wave come through that
was a little bit hairy but even then you
know 25 30 knots of wind we did down we
did good progress so there was a lot of
my soup incredible matter rain I've seen
a long time I was a little bit concerned
about the lightning because I don't have
good grounding sets so I was a little
bit concerned about that but it passed
and ever since then we've had really
nice weather you know a guy a little bit
slower now maybe three knots sometimes
less but that's just fantastic I'm
really just I'm not looking at that I'm
not looking at the clock and I'm not
looking at how many miles are doing I'm
just plotting my my daily mark on the
chart and reading my books and probably
for the first time really just enjoying
the passage up to New York City um
thinking about the hill lot about what's
next yeah I just really having a good
time so forget that when I get there
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it's just I've never seen so much right
it was quite amazing so I had a shower
and and I just watched watch the
spectacle from inside the boat actually
left a bucket out here in the cockpit
and it filled up Twice first time I
dumped it overboard and the second time
I saved the water I've just done some
washing if I'd have been smart I
probably ought to setup got one of the
sails out and used it as they have to
collect the rain the drinking water
would it be nice to have some so let's
chill drain water next time it's kind of
a little bit frustrating just sitting
here there's no wind I'm got any fuel so
let's just pray so something happens
light winds past two days progress next
to nothing you'd be better today
um but silk nothing to find home about
um you know pretty uneventful web site
really uh huh a little bit concerned
about this I guess I see and being
become I'm gonna get above 30 degrees
latitude into the horse latitudes um
it's there's nothing I can do so call in
for a weather forecast
maybe tomorrow and see see what's
happening out there hopefully I won't
have to go into Bonita because I don't
want to delay things any further I just
want to get up to the Big Apple so this
is - so far still haven't caught a fish
you
so it's the 8th of June 2008 and I'm
about 70 nautical miles west of Bermuda
and still 650 nautical miles south of
New York City and I was going to go into
Bermuda for fuel because there's so
little wind that was kind of recommended
to me that I should just go in for fuel
and motor on but that's not really
practical and I really just really
didn't want to stop um for psychological
reasons mostly um because on a long trip
like this if you stop halfway we're not
even halfway over halfway you know you
break it up you know you're on one big
trip and you break it up like that and
then you you've got to prepare and and
to do another one and I just it's just
too much so I decided to just stay out
here and soldier on this there's no wind
and it's a bit of a problem and I'm
becomed right now but that's on the
verge of a wind change
I hope the only real concerns are if
this does take you know two weeks I'm
gonna stay and food issues already
understand two kind of rice really basic
pasta known nothing else but I'm okay
with that but I'm not okay with not
having any food at all so I'm really
hoping that we get some wind and I can
continue on
tonight though I guess I'll sleep well
look cited as a rain squall coming so
who knows but there's a big high
pressure system over me and this is
really no helping so fingers crossed
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see what
try
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is actually incredibly incredibly spooky
um there's a Sanka weird fog I really
think this area was known for fog but
sauce just really here you feel like
like say go ship or something out here
or that some big pirate ship is getting
lit up over the horizon but then out of
that nice full lance time it's a little
bit scary
I'm glad I have to write out and pick
there at least copy cloud down by big
ship yeah I think I'm just those estates
stay tucked up in bed tonight very very
weird
so we're still 580 nautical miles away
from from New York City and Condit down
through what you saw then is just gonna
rice and chili sauce and my managed to
fly Nakata muscles ah in the village
pretty much I still six days or
something of just rice we will run out
all the sweet things
normal cookies no more nothing really
just rice and a little bit of pasta left
that's it so it's the glamour of
offshore sailing that small boat
offshore sailing is get the rice you get
pounded around and more your windows
leak you can't really see it but all my
windows are leaking and you eat your
food on your lap go to bed and then you
do it all over again
so bring on New York City give me a
house and a cheeseburger or something
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today across the Gulf Stream and it
wasn't very nice
I'm just like since back to am and it's
evening out pretty exhausted we've being
pushed way out east by the current in
the stream I think we're still affected
by a she went to tell but
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there was another yacht out there
selling your discover challenger 67 foot
yacht and I saw him in a haze it was
kind of think there is bushfires on the
continent and you could smell them and
there was a lot of haze around today I
talked with the captain of discover and
he confirmed my suspicions and also we
had a chat about the Gulf Stream
that was a trip he was experiencing the
same thing as me being pushed a yeast
and so that was good just to confirm
with someone else
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is a big low-pressure system which I
found out about from talking to
adventure of the Seas of the cruise ship
and he has discover as in my sexy
onboard and gave me a bit of a better
picture of the low-pressure system and
hopefully it's going to skip around
around stop it and I'll get a nice beam
reach in New York City that's the
best-case scenario but right now
we're heading away from New York City
and actually adding miles that's kind of
irritating other than that it's okay I
just hope that this low-pressure system
does go starboard all that fire still in
the grip of the Gulf Stream that I'm not
seen so that I can stop easting and rail
west towards me or otherwise I'll end up
in Nantucket or something it's a beach
Whaler or I don't know anyway
so tomorrow things change a bit in be
another two three days and I'll be into
New York City I hope I'm looking forward
I'm pretty tired and I'm very hungry
yeah I'd say
so it's the night after the boisterous
Gulf Stream and quibec and that's just
not supposed to happen we're supposed to
have had perfect wind up to New York
City that's really weird because they're
supposed to be is you know low pressure
system blah blah blah maybe this is the
calm before the storm that I know but
it's pretty incredible here it's it's
very cold now the water has changed
color and is now sort of a murky green
supposed to a sort of bright kind of
crystal-clear blue it's really quite an
amazing change the Gulf Stream is
phenomenal it's it's like crossing a
border like a sea border and you cross
it in one side it's kind of warm and
sunny and the other side it's it's cold
and green and really completely
different sits I had no idea what an
immense change happened so it was so
suddenly I knew the importance of the
Gulf Stream but no idea that it was
literally across it and there's another
world on the other side so it's quite
amazing so it's about 6:30 a.m. and
hopefully some wind comes up sooner
rather than later
No AVO she told them that the Court of
Appeal rejected I've been stuck with
Christian radio for quite a long time so
it was quite a surprise to find ABC
radio a um I have to pick up ABC ready
all the way from mommy here I can't even
get the BBC so I'm impressed
go ABC there's been a few new additions
to the boat there's been a couple of
moths and I saw a fly and there's some
new birds and it's pretty interesting
and yesterday the I don't know if I
mentioned it but I could smell smoke and
I made sure that we went on fire and I
left the message from Artie and said oh
I can smell smoke you know what's what's
happening and there must have been a
Northwest northwest winds bringing the
smoke from North Carolina as big pfizer
so that was pretty fascinating because I
noticed that from a new Bermuda a sort
of bushfire haze and I just thought I
was kind of some things are always
something else but I guess that's what I
was so we're still 250 miles from New
York but definitely really interesting
changes really subtle really interesting
buuut came out of nowhere I was pointed
right at me he won't respond on the
radio but he changed course so yes he
can see me he's pretty close really is
here the B engines
if you've ever wondered where all the
balloons in the world go uh they come
out here with me and we we float around
there's another one you can't see in the
distance on camera if it has another
balloon floating a couple hundred meters
away and this is the third balloon I've
seen and about the sixth I've seen all
together why there's a big fish um so
yeah that's that's where all the
balloons go when you let a balloon go
they come here with me see it
we're just going in a big circle
that's the Eddy now we're just going
back to where you know I got caught in
it literally just going in a
circle and then I tried to motor out of
it and the engines gone and I'm running
out of food and it's just really not
funny anymore
and there's another balloon we know we
can't catch it
there's this Sun I don't know why it's
so red it could be the fires again I
don't know there's a very kind of hazy
kind of conditions and at the back there
is a warship it's just called warship
6:8 it's very uninspiring name but
there's six nautical miles away now and
they're conducting life tests so
hopefully when I get hit by that's kind
of funny I hear and within a hundred
miles of America and I'm already kind of
experiencing the military might there
they gonna firing they're already firing
so I'm feeling better today we're yeah
we were getting close to New York and
escaped the wrath of the of the eddy
which I've named Eddie D Eddie which is
a very original creative so we're almost
that's very exciting
can't wait
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fine
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yeah
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just 80 miles from New York City and
this
or something is just blonde sir it's uh
it's really quite strong winds hopefully
it's just school and it's just going to
blow out in 20 minutes of something but
because this e is will build
lying like this and it's so close
Jesus
I need any uh any really bad weather is
closed
it's still really blowing really hot out
there um it could possibly be the the
strongest winds I've experienced so far
which is kind of ironic but we wove too
and then I always did the jib we got
some good progress but now it's another
squall is and yeah it's a fishermen say
that's a little bit surprised you could
see the school on radar and I thought it
was just going to be 1520 knots today
which is what I thought too so let's
just hope that these are morning storms
squalls and they go away
we're about 15 nautical miles from the
entrance to New York Harbor and it's
5:00 in the morning and there's very
limited visibilities down to I'd say
less than one nautical mile so it's a
little bit it's a little bit hairy
coming into such a major port and not
being able to to see anything but
hopefully all the other ships have radar
and I have a right out of tech this so
we should be okay but it's still a
little bit disconcerting we're almost
there
so we made it where this is landed the
Sandy Hook point in New Jersey first
side of land in 28 days now so there you
have it that that's it really
you