Count Down
January 13, 2008
It is frigid in Annapolis this time of year with the overnight temperatures dropping into the twenties and thin sheets of ice forming in the backwaters of the marinas where the current of Spa Creek stalls. Although still in the water we have tucked Makara away for the winter, taking advantage of a Sunny Friday shortly after New Years to strip her head sail and have her main sail removed for a repair of a minor manufacturing flaw. Her circulatory system of plumbing has also been drained of any water which might freeze and replaced with a pink cocktail of propylene glycol antifreeze. I am sad that my duties in Japan have prevented me from having a chance to sail her, but Spring and my return to the US will come soon enough and afford me the chance to catch the wind with Makara's sails.
Although the docks in Annapolis are vacant of all but the heartiest of souls, and Makara sleeps, our preparations for casting off are beginning to pick up pace. Our lives are beginning to become a whirlwind of planning discussions, list making, and more than a little anxiety over everything that needs to be done. We are now in our final year before departure and count down has seriously begun.
When we first started this journey in an apartment in New York City in 2005 we had set a goal, dictated by the end of the Atlantic Hurricane season, of departing in November of 2008. Although the exact details of that plan have changed somewhat, amazingly we are still targeting to take Makara on her first major journey, the 900 miles from the Chesapeake to Florida in November of this year. We have set a departure date and be assured it will not be a Friday as all mariners know this is bad luck
There are many people who dream the dream of going cruising but never actually leave dock, so up until now we have been fairly guarded with our cruising plans for Makara for fear that we might not be taken seriously. There have been many clues in these logs but it is now time has come for more detailed disclosure.
Makara from her conception was built with the specific intention of sailing to the Antarctic Peninsula. That’s right, icebergs, penguins, leopard seals, global warming, all that. Since a life long goal was to round Cape Horn, we thought why not take the 600 mile side trip to a very special part of the world.
To give you an appreciation of how serious we are about this fairly outrageious goal, here are a few unusual things about Makara:
- She was built with no air conditioning but has a 45,000 BTU diesel heater
- Her hull is specially insulated with 1” of foam to help protect her interior from the cold of the Antarctic waters
- The waterproof bulkhead in her bow was built specifically with the intention of providing some protection against a collision with ice
- She was equipped with extra tankage to provide adequate fuel for heating, and if required to motor on the round trip from Cape Horn to the Antarctic Peninsula.
- Her stern arch, discussed in a previous log, was built specifically to support a Fleet 33 satellite antenna which is one of the few robust systems which can provide communications in Antarctica
So the reason to let that cat out of the bag now is that we are in the early countdown for our Antarctic objective, the journey which is governed by not only the miles between the Maryland and the Southern continent, but also by the winds and the seasonal Atlantic hurricanes.
A very wise friend of mind once taught me that the path to our objectives is not necessarily a straight line and the same is true of the journey we are on now. I have outlined below our plans and at first blush I doubt seriously they make sense, but I assure you this is the easiest and safest way to get from here to there.
When |
From/To |
To |
Constraint |
Why |
Nov 2008 |
Maryland |
Florida |
End of Atlantic Hurricane Season |
Completion of systems in a more temperate climate |
Apr 2008 |
Florida |
Nova Scotia via MD, NY, MA, ME |
End of Winter |
Long distance shakedown of Makara |
Aug 2008 |
St. Johns |
Annapolis |
End of Summer |
Final preparations in Annapolis |
Nov 2009 |
Annapolis |
Bermuda |
End of Atlantic Hurricane Season |
Gateway to the Caribbean |
Dec 2009 |
Bermuda |
Grenada via USVI, BVI’s, Leewards, Windwards |
Set up for spring jump to the Azores |
A little relaxing cruising prior to heading south |
April 2010 |
BVI’s |
Azores |
Start of Atlantic Hurricane Season |
Winds/currents make the easiest way to South America via Africa |
May 2010 |
Azores |
Canaries |
South of Hurricane Zone |
Jumping off point for South America |
June 2010 |
Canaries |
Rio De Janero |
Start of Spring in S Hemisphere |
First major port of call south of the horn of SA |
July 2010 |
Rio |
Beagle Channel |
Favorable weather for rounding cape horn |
Must be at cape horn by December |
Dec 2010 |
Prt. Williams Chile |
Antarctica |
Start of Summer in Antarctica |
Our goal |
Jan 2011 |
Antarctica |
Prt. Williams Chile |
End of Summer in Antarctica |
On to our next objective |
It may seem like we have a lot of time before we get to Antarctica, we won't make landfall there for 3 years, so what is the big deal and all the excitement – there is plenty of time. Oh, if only that were true. Our son in law recently remarked to me that when we first described our plans he really didn’t understand why it was going to take so long – after all, we just had to buy a boat and go – that shouldn’t take all that long. The analogy that Judy and I like to use is that it really shouldn’t have taken all that long to go to the moon either, we put Alan Shepard in space in 1961, why did it take 8 years to put a man on the moon? The reasons dear readers are the details.
In addition to designing and constructing a highly customized production boat that could withstand the rigors of some of the most dangerous oceans on the planet, we have yet to even partially test that vessel. We also have at least two major systems to install (water-maker and satellite communications), need to sell our home, most of the worldly goods we have amassed, transition mentally and physically from working for the past 30+ years into lives as cruiser-adventurers and then have the courage to “light the candle” for our true lift off.
Referring back to the table above and the analogy of the US space program, we think of our initial shakedown to Florida and up the coast to Maine as our Mercury program. From Maine to Nova Scotia and down to the Caribbean as our Gemini program, and our trip from the BVI’s to the Azores as the beginning of Apollo. Landing on the moon will come when we reach Antartica only 6 years from when this idea was first concieved, not too bad.
We are in fact in countdown – around 300 days left until we, like Alan Shepard cut the umbilical from our launching pad in Annapolis toward our first venture into the open ocean as we head toward Florida in November. Godspeed Makara.