Greetings all, we are looking for a third crew member for our voyage across the Atlantic from Bermuda to the Azores. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity!
We would prefer that you have sailing experience, but prepare to relax for most of the trip! You would mostly serve as good company and peace of mind since Maddie is nervous about single-handing the boat if something were to happen to me. Both sets of our parents would feel more comfortable if we had a third hand along for the longest stretch of our journey.
You will find details about the trip, our vessel, and contact information below. We hope that you will consider joining us for this segment of our adventure!
If you are interested in being crew or have any further questions, please email us at RiggingDr@gmail.com.
A few things to know about our personalities:
We are very laid back, especially at sea. We enjoy listening to music, reading, and playing games. We are not huge drinkers, but there's nothing quite like a happy hour on a calm day. I am slightly introverted and enjoy my alone time, but I also enjoy good company. Maddie is extroverted and always easy to talk to.
Wisdom is a 45 foot Morgan from 1968. She has been completely refitted and repowered. The equipment list includes:
Power and Batteries
- 20kw electric motor/hydrogenerator
- 210Ah 48VDC motor battery bank
- 525Ah 12VDC house battery bank
- 100W solar array on stern
- 200W flexible solar array on deck
- Electronic autopilot
Pumps
- 1000gph electric high water bilge pump
- 500gph electric bilge pump
- 250gph electric shaft sump pump
- Whale Gusher manual bilge pump
- Edson 1 gallon per throw manual bilge pump
Rigging
- Synthetic standing rigging
- VPC running rigging
- Sta-set control lines
Sails
- Battenless dacron mainsail with 3 reefs
- Full batten laminated mainsail with 2 reefs (spare mainsail)
- 100% jib with 1 reef
- 95% staysail with 1 reef
- 80% staysail with 1 reef (spare staysail)
- Nylon 180% drifter (light air sail)
- Nylon battenless mainsail (light air sail)
Safety and Navigation
- VHF radio with AIS and GPS
- Handheld GPS
- Satellite communicator
- Garmin chartplotter with GPS
- Depth sounder
- Windspeed and windpoint
- 4 person Offshore Life raft
- Ditch bag
- Life Sling
- Emergency boarding ladder
- EPIRB
- Floating orange smoke
- Non-expired flares
- LED signaling device (electronic flare and spare batteries)
- Flare gun
- Handheld VHF radio
- Paper charts
- Sextant, compass, and accurate time piece
- Sea anchor
- Monitor Windvane
Provisions
- 160 gallons of water in rigid tanks
- 27 gallons of rain water in bladder tank
- Rain water collectors
- 80 gallons of diesel (for heat)
- Large volume of canned and dry foods
- Large ice box for cold items
To prevent a mutiny while crossing the ocean, we feel it is important to lay out some ground rules before we proceed any further.
- We do not have any significant range on our electric motor, so if there is no wind, we will put up the nylon sails and sit as we drift along. This is when we cook nice meals and read books or play games.
- If we see foul weather approaching, we will put up the storm sails preemptively and sit as we await the storm to approach. When the storm hits, we heave to and wait for it to pass over. If the winds are too powerful, we will deploy the sea anchor and lower the reefed staysail, but the trysail will remain set to keep us hove to. We will not lay-a-hull during a storm.
- Fresh water is very precious. Water usage is calculated based on how many miles we have left to go. If we are sailing quickly, we can use more water for showers or laundry. If we are not moving, the water usage is also exceedingly strict.
- We carry 120L of bottled water in addition to the tanks, this is enough for 3 people to survive for 20 days comfortably.
- Based on 2L per person per day
- We carry 120L of bottled water in addition to the tanks, this is enough for 3 people to survive for 20 days comfortably.
- Teeth are brushed with clean sea water. Fresh water used to rinse if necessary.
- Showers will depend on how much we all smell and how fast we have been moving in the right direction.
- We heave to at night and go to sleep. I (Herb) wakes up at a regular interval to check for approaching vessels. AIS proximity alarm is also set to a 2nm proximity alert range.
- Sleep is very important, and we feel that getting a good nights sleep will better allow us to make the critical decisions that will keep us all safe. This will make the voyage take longer, but only by a few days.
- No drugs please.
- No smoking please.
- No drinking please.
- We will not enter a harbor by night. If we arrive at the Azores in the afternoon, we will heave to and enter the harbor in the morning.
The tentative schedule is to leave Bermuda around Oct 3rd and arrive in the Azores before November. We will be doing a fall crossing of the Atlantic, and our route will be roughly 35*N. We will ride the northern portion of the doldrums, where there is no wind because when the massive winter gales rage by to the North, they will create plenty of wind from the West in the doldrums. We will ride these puffs of wind as the storms roll by in their cyclical pattern.
When a storm is North of us, we will have comfortable wind to sail in. When there is no storm to the North of us, we will sit and cook as we wait for the next storm to blast by and give us another push in the right direction.
Our actual course and date of departure is subject to change based on weather conditions and patterns around that time.
October 3rd was arbitrarily chosen as the departure date from Bermuda. If you feel that a different date around that time frame works for you, let us know, we are very flexible with times and dates.
