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...

Closed Captions (CC):
you

you

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

[Music]

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

you

[Music]

you

[Music]

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

[Music]

see what

try

[Music]

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

[Music]

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

[Music]

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

[Music]

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

[Music]

fine

[Music]

yeah

you

[Music]

[Music]

you

[Music]

[Music]

you

[Music]

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