Flicka 'round the world' trip planned

[Tim]

 :D Yeh, I've been lurkin for about a year now, spend WAY too much time on TSBB, didn't want to start another habit ;D

OH NO!

Tim

[CharlieJ]

Now just how would you spend too much time on TSBB? I know I certainly don't ;D

Laura is now saying "liar, liar, pants on fire" ;D ;D ;D

[Tim]

  ;)  Ahem...I noticed that you, Charlie have been the TOP poster over there for awhile ::)

[Frank]

 
Today, Wednesday, January 3rd, at 12 noon, Heather Neill and s/y FLIGHT of YEARS pulled away from the dock, on a first course of 197 degrees true, into 22 knot of NNE wind, short period wind waves.Temp with wind chill 26%. Averaging 5.6-5.7 on a reach.

[Frank]

full info here  http://www.flicka20.com/

[CharlieJ]

Yeah, yeah- I know- #1 gasbag on TSBB. Normally Noemi's slot.

[AdriftAtSea]

Thanks Frank... :)

[Frank]

Just tried the little locating map on Heathers site under 'where is she now'.If you zoom in..it shows her on land.....either a BIG wave or the site's not working  :o

[Captain Smollett]

Frank, I noticed that also.  I think the site just has not been updated yet.  At least when I checked earlier today, hoping to hear something of her first day out, it seemed the last update for that position was 22 September 2007.

Hopefully, we'll hear something soon.

[Pappy Jack]

I can see why Dr. Gene is upset and has had it up to eye balls with all of our tittering even though we mean well. He, and I'm sure his wife, have been under a lot of pressure this last year or two helping their daughter,Heather, getting things ready for the BIG VOYAGE. The thousands and thousands of details that go into an enterprise of this magnitude must be overwhelming. I'm sure that they have all the faith in the world that their daughter and her boat BUT, it is still THEIR daughter that is going to OUT THERE. My wife Sandy and I know the feeling that parents get in this situation. Our son was in the First Gulf War...need I say more ???? So let's give them a little slack and hope he'll come back and talk to us after some of the pressure is off.

Fair wind and full sails

Pappy Jack

[Auspicious]

I heard directly from Gene. Apparently there have been some minor challenges:

Number one, she got locked out of the salon.  There is a little sliding catch inside so you can lock the sliding hatch when you're inside.  And the seas were so rough the latch slid shut by itself, and she couldn't get below, so she had to break out the thick plastic drop board I made for her, so she could get below to the GPSs, etc.  But now she has a huge hole where the drop board used to be.  Dangerous at sea.

Then one of the clasps on her top-of-the-line safety harness broke; also her engine went out (not in this order), and she has only reverse gear.

But she's closer here than Isla Mujeres, so she's heading back from way out in the Gulf of Mexico to fix all this.

It's hilarious:  Everybody asked about her shakedown cruise, and I said there's no such thing as a shakedown cruise.  Every time you pull away from your dock you're on a shakedown cruise.  Not one thing went wrong on her solo 170 mile shakedown cruise.  But now that the real thing comes along - look what happens!

The latch problem is interesting. It is causing me to rethink how I fit a way to lock the boat when I am below (currently I can only lock it from outside). Subtext is she was sailing with all the boards in and the slide closed which is good practice to my mind.

The harness failure is attention getting, isn't it?

It sounds more like a transmission problem than an engine one - probably just a linkage.

[AdriftAtSea]

Thanks for the update—

Safety harnesses are pretty simple beasties... so I'm wondering how the clip broke? 

As for the hatch, I do have mine setup so I can lock it from the inside... however, that requires me to swap out the top dropboard for a different one, that has the lock on it.  There is no way it can lock without human interaction, since it is basically a deadbolt lock.  It sounds like her design was one that automatically latched if the hatch was slid completely shut... which IMHO is not a good design. Granted, mine is probably a bit more complicated to use, but I'd rather not risk getting locked out of my own boat while singlehanding. :)

I'm actually surprised though that she didn't have spare dropboards on board her boat.  They do get lost and damaged, especially on something as long as a circumnavigation. 

I wonder why the engine/tranny decided to act up now?

[Auspicious]

It sounds like her design was one that automatically latched if the hatch was slid completely shut... which IMHO is not a good design. Granted, mine is probably a bit more complicated to use, but I'd rather not risk getting locked out of my own boat while singlehanding.

I interpreted it differently. Obviously guessing, I visualized a conventional barrel bolt mounted to the bottom of the sliding hatch. That would mean if the little handle jiggles down from vibration the bolt could slide locked (or unlocked for that matter) in a seaway.

I wonder why the engine/tranny decided to act up now?

The statement that "she only has reverse" makes me think it is a linkage that dropped off -- either the end fitting of a cable or a cotter that fell off its pin and allowed something to come loose.

[W Jones]

I don't want to criticize but as far as the transmisson problem goes and if its just the cable she should be able to handle that at sea. Even if the cable is broke she could shift it by hand to get into port. Someone there would help her dock if she had to get in a tight spot.

I would think the harness problem could be handled at sea also even if she had to use a piece of line or a snap shackle off or something else.

The hatch board might be another thing entirely as she needs to be able to keep the water out of the boat. Maybe that is enough reason to head back.

What ever the situation is I wish her the best of luck and hope this setback doesn't dishearten her too much.

[CharlieJ]

Hi Walt- welcome aboard by the way.

What I don't really understand is why go back to Steinhatchee? It's up wind. Why not , if you were going back in at all, go in somewhere further south to save whatever southing you already made. Ft Myers comes to mind. That puts her more on a reach getting inshore.

Of course, not being ON the boat makes it purely second guessing, but that's what I'd do.

[AdriftAtSea]

Well, Steinhatchee does have the advantage of being somewhat familiar grounds for Heather, and she does know the area around Steinhatchee a bit.  Also, she may not have charts for Ft. Myers, which would be a bit of poor planning, since having charts of possible ports of refuge is generally a good idea.

[Lost Lake]

Let's not criticize from our cozy chairs many miles from this amazing woman who is doing what many of us wish we had the nards to do!!

I don't know what happened, and I don't know why she's going where she's going, but I trust she is a capable captain of her vessel, so I'll just wish her the best.

I do hope I can follow her as she lives her dream! Please don't pick at every decision and action and point out why it's not perfect in your mind.

If she has a motor problem and she wants to come home, great! Maybe it could be worked around at sea, but that's not important. She is doing what she wants to do, and that's the whole point of her trip isn't it?

[CharlieJ]

Not trying to pick at her Lost Lake- I'm full of admiration for her and mean no criticism at all.

With a sailing wife, who  singlehands our boat, around here we much admire women like Heather ( and Ellen MacArthur) who get out there and DO it.

Just trying to understand is all, and without being on board of course that's second guessing. But as a long time sailor, I just wondered about the choice of port is all. Beating back to a port is hard work.

Of course, at the moment, Steinhatchee has zero wind.

[Tim]

I am not sure one is "second guessing" or criticizing by speculating on the motivations or reasons for decisions made on board. I am pretty sure all of us who have been out there and had to make decisions like that have later when back at shore speculated how thing might have been done.

Until we get some more info I think that's all we can do and that's OK

Myself, I think there might be more to it because she is coming all the way back, but I certainly don't know why.

[W Jones]

Let's not criticize from our cozy chairs many miles from this amazing woman who is doing what many of us wish we had the nards to do!!

Gee I'm sorry I though this was a discussion board. If someone is going to get their nickers in a twist everytime someone speculates about something there won't be much to talk about.

I never said she shouldn't come back I just didn't think that the transmisson or harness problem would be enough to stop what appears to be a very capeable woman. I just think that there is  more to it than we are getting.

Not that there is anything bad about regrouping and starting over, some of the best cruisers have had to come back to the port they left for one reason or another. Heck I know of a small boat sailor that posts here that has had the Gulf send him back to the ICW on at least one occasion.

I also know several Valiant owners that have sailed all over the world who avoid the gulf like the plague. Mark Schrader was quoted as saying that if he never sailed across the Gulf Of Mexico again it would be too soon. Rich Worstell (owner of Valiant Yachts)  told me that he will never sail there again. I met a couple with a 40+' Panda who got beat up so bad in the gulf that they said they just went below and closed up the boat and waited to die. The boat was tougher than they were and eventually the storm passed and they were ok. They are lake sailors now.

So what ever Heather does my hats off to her for tackling the gulf on the first leg of her voyage and I hope its the worst she has to endure.

I'll wait and see what happens here before I post anything else.