My Adventure: by Steve O'Leary
We were laughing like children, surfing down waves on our first night after leaving Gran Canaria for the start of the transatlantic ARC+ sailing rally. The winds were blowing hard on our stern with gusts clocking over 35 knots, 10 foot plus waves and we were flying through the pitch black darkness across the churning sea. With nothing else to look at, our eyes were glued on the instruments watching the boat speed as we climbed up and surf down the endless waves. A nonstop roller coaster. Up and up to the peak and then quickly sliding down the backside… 19 knots, 20, 21, 22.7 knots boat speed! We were sailing a 47 foot, 22,000 pound NEEL cruising trimaran (not a racing boat) so this was really really fast. High-fives all around as I told my two crewmates that we have this race in the bag on our very first night of over two weeks at sea. No one else was certainly going anywhere near our speed and what could go wrong? We were killing it!
Then, in a split second, our spinnaker disappeared, and we stopped dead in the water. The emotional high immediately turned to an extreme low and thoughts of the race being over for us. The spinnaker broke loose from the halyard and ended up in the ocean underneath the boat. It took nearly an hour to fish that enormous sail out of the water while being tossed around in the waves. Now the spinnaker halyard was sitting at the top of a 70 foot mast and the only way to retrieve it was for someone to go up the mast in a bosun‘s chair. Not a problem when you’re sitting at the dock, but out at sea in the pitch black with the mast pitching 20 feet side to side like a pendulum was a daunting task. But I wanted back in the race so I didn’t hesitate to attempt this daring halyard rescue. I hung on tight as I was hoisted up into the darkness and didn’t look down. I got bruised and scratched by the pitching mast and It nearly ripped my pants completely off, but I ended up reaching the halyard. I then couldn’t get back down to the safety of the deck fast enough, so when my crew stopped my descent halfway down to take photos of the event, I let out a loud scream, ‘Get me down!’. It was the scariest thing I’ve done on a sailboat.
Every sailor will end up dealing with adversities that inevitably arise during their time at sea. It’s all part of the adventure. This was our big issue that we had to deal with during the Atlantic sailing rally. But the problems along the way are outweighed by the experiences and wonderful memories of the entire adventure. It’s hard to describe what you will experience sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. Water is far as the eye can see and you’re surrounded by so many different shades of blue. A deep blue ocean with a light blue horizon, transitioning to a gray blue sky, only broken up by small white puffy clouds. Sunrises and sunset unimaginably beautiful. But it was the nights that were the most awe inspiring. The brilliant night sky was so clear I felt as though I was inside a snow globe surrounded by billions of stars. Shooting stars constantly provided fireworks in the heavens and the light show in the water was just as good. Luminescent plankton left a trail of fairy dust in the boat’s wake. Dolphins look like torpedoes leaving a blue-white trail as they darted through the microscopic organisms. The ‘Big Blue’ provided for me sights of indescribable beauty and a peacefulness that I have found no where else.
Advice to Others:
Everyone can experience something like this and you don’t even have to buy your own boat. There are many websites that boat owners use to find crew for everything from day sailing to trans-ocean journeys for all experience levels for little to no cost. So if you ever had the desire to get out on the water, it is easy to do and you can join a sailing community that truly is a great group of people.
