It is with great amazement, humility and excitement that I am able to announce that Constellation and I, are going to answer the call of the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to a highly generous friend, mentor and all around good person, I have a sponsor / loan of sorts, which is going to power me across the Atlantic, this year, on schedule. The last month has been fraught by disappointment, plan changes, incessant nervous walking, and scheming. But now, all that is a memory, as my head explodes with things that need doing, work I had commited to that requires finishing, and repairs that need to be made, so I can fly like the wind to my start point in the Canary Islands. Really, thank you.

Help from new and old friends is abound. Thank you again(!) to Martin at Autosystems, for his exceptional encouragement, and kindness. Marty & Autosystems are helping me out with a Satellite phone for my Atlantic crossing, so I can give updates back home, maybe make a call for Christmas, and keep this site updated with positions and reports. Incredible.

Thank you to Brian at Southampton Trailer Hire for the donation - Quite amazingly, Brian has Constellation’s original trailer for hire - If you check out his site, there are even pictures of her former self! Thank you Brian, and if you ever need a hire, do think about returning his favour to me, in the form of hiring one of his trailers.

Thank you to Tudor, for his donation, and unwavering support, and ‘official trip advisor’ status. Tudor has been my secret weapon, a person who I have been able to ask stupid questions without fearing ridicule, a person who shows great patience with my fickle plans and constant changes. Everytime I have a query, Tudor has time to help me out with great pragmatism.

Thank you to the new Dutch sailing site, SailorsForSailors.com, a site soon to be launching in English at the end of the month, so keep an eye out. SailorsForSailors is a portal full of cruising stories, comprehensive marina reviews, videos and regular updates. Thanks to these guys, I’m able to to actually leave the marina here in La Coruna.

Thank you to Monica for being my ‘friend and sister in La Coruna’ - You rock!

Thank you also to Spud, Liam, and David for the donation and words of support, you guys are fantastic.

So where and what to do now? As I said, I have things to finish here in Coruna before anything else. I have some bits and pieces of work to finish off, and also I need to ‘re-commission’ Constellation. I arrived here, dumped everything on deck, took the mainsail off the track, packed her up and cleaned away the sheets. She’s a mess inside and out, and needs tending to before getting back out to sea. I hope to leave within the next five to six days, weather pending - Things I hope will pickup in seven days, once that enormous low figures out where, and what it’s doing. It’s getting cold here in northern Spain, so I keenly look forward to warmer climes. The weather in Barbados is a balmy 30degrees. My oh my, who would have thought I would be looking at Caribbean temperatures so soon?! No, not I.

I’ve not really done any route planning as such, all this news is almost as new to you, as it is to me. But of course, I will stop off in Lisbon (where I can re-read The Book of Disquiet in spectacular context), hopping down to Cadiz, and then of course I will have to watch Humphrey Bogart as I dock in Casablanca, simply because it’s there, and what an experience… I guess I’ll follow the standard route afterwards, spend some time in Las Palmas before dropping off the edge into the great abyss, and with great luck, hit land some 25-30 or so days later. I have a ways to go before I get to my starting point, so best not to get too far ahead of myself… But, I’m very excited and very nervous.

Thank you everybody, I’m lost for words.

nick.

It has now been three weeks in La Coruna. I guess it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy that I would end up here for winter… As I’ve said before, every major port I arrive in, I admit defeat and proclaim that I’m stopping, getting a job, and getting a haircut. Somehow I’ve managed up until here, but La Coruna clearly has some kind of magnetic anomaly which has me glued to the waters surface.

I had however triumphantly proclaimed earlier this week that I’d had it, I was going south regardless of all my worldly problems: I still had one tiny trick left up my sleeve, which was to call Lloyds Bank, and somehow convince them I really needed the ₤90’s worth of overdrawn fees returned to my account. I had a long forgotten automated transaction take me to to a ‘whopping’ ₤18 in the red, which resulted in this incredible overdraw penalty. I also had the fortune of a secret cheque in my name, to the tune of ₤125, yet it was useless if cashed onto an account already in the negative. This lone cheque was the result of the local Esso factory in Bursledon spilling it’s black soot all over the boatyard I was in, entitling me to compensation to clean the boat. Good friends from the yard filled in the forms for me, and collected the cheque on my behalf, but I had no way of cashing it. I was really trying to avoid a bad credit record in the UK, so I had been pondering that I might cash it anyway, to get rid of my ‘debt’… To cut a lengthening story short, I knew if I could get the fees back, cash the cheque, plus the €50 marina key deposit, I could release myself from these pontoon shackles, and edge further south in search of more good luck, and heaven forbid, maybe even a small job. But unfortunately, after telling you my most private banking secrets and hidden cheque stories, there is no triumphant or happy ending. Sometimes when you’re about to hit a brick wall, you actually do.

Which brings me to my next thoughts on the topic; of why I mention all this… I often think back to the days when I dreamt all of this up, and just really had no idea how I could make it happen. You read the same story over and over again, about someone doing something on large sponsorship, a good pension, or simply a lot of money. I guess I’d like my story to be about the person who tried to do too much with too little. I tell you not of my woes in hope for a step up (but I am incredibly honoured when granted one), but rather to chronicle things for myself and others, and ultimately to be one of the limited success stories in small boat, small funded and independent long distance sailing. While I may make out that things are difficult (and mostly they are, but on a relative scale), the truth of the matter is, I would not have it any other way. Someone said to me the other day ‘if it really gets too hard, why not just sell up and leave’? I’ve never thought of doing that - I’ve thought of what I might do if I sank the boat, (which if you’re wondering, would be to start walking home, or buy another one) but very little energy has been dedicated to the subject of selling up. Besides, if I did that, then what would I do?

I say all this, to prep you (and maybe myself…) for the news that I simply cannot continue this year, and I will be staying in La Coruna, working, and building my own ideas into things that will power me forward, as early as possible next year. Up until now I have avoided saying the final ‘this is it, I’m staying put’, because I’ve always secretly held out that something would happen. But in my quiet reflections on the situation, I was honest with myself, and admitted that without sizable cash injection, even if I did manage to get out of here, I’d quite simply get stuck a little further down the coast, yet again. I also came to the conclusion that I was really happy to have come this far, and also felt good that I could sit back and stop for a minute, knowing that I had tried as hard as I possibly could to get here.

So what now? Well, I may not be able to sail, but I will never rest! I have my own ideas and projects to work on, and I hope to get enough paid work to keep me nourished and in good spirits (if you need any web development work, be sure to hit me up!). Over the next few months, I’ll tell you all about what I’m working on, what I’ve been doing, and about future additions my sailing project. This entire idea has always been bigger than myself, and I hope to keep it that way with some slight additions and route changes.

Thanks so much to everybody for your help and encouragement in getting this far. Everywhere I go, people are helping in every way they can, and it’s almost arrogant to say that I sail singlehanded. I hope my temporary defeat is not disappointing to you all, and I trust on prior experience, you know that any admission of ‘defeat’ is closely coupled with the word ‘temporary’ - I will get home, on a small boat, alone and with much gusto!

nick.

So it’s now almost been two weeks since I arrived in La Coruna. My work situation has kind of disintegrated, for a number of technical reasons I won’t bore you with. This poses a minor problem to my plans, but alas, there is nothing I can do but keep pushing and searching for solutions. I’m really becoming quite aware about how easy it could be for me to stay here and not move for the winter, which is unnerving, so the search continues. At present, I literally can’t afford to pay my way out of the marina (you pay on departure here, as opposed to day-by-day, which means you put yourself in a debt of sorts…), so until something comes out of the woodwork, I’m iced in. I like to think of myself as being a Shackleton of sorts, stuck not really by choice, but rather by extremities. My capture being pure economics, as opposed to a harsh icy climate though - The weather here is actually quite stunning.

I was somewhat amazed to find an article on the web about my attempts at work, yet it was positive, and definitely a good advertisement for any future employers! It was also quite exciting that Tom and Tina Sjogren of Explorersweb Inc. took any interest at all in my predicament, they being the ultimate adventuring duo, and also hosts to one of the largest portals of genuine adventure and exploration. It’s also been one of my favourite websites for a long time, from the days of sitting back and dreaming of far flung adventures.

Besides all my ongoing woes, I’ve certainly not been bored while living here - Several days ago the German schooner ‘Johan Smidt’ appeared overnight, with a crew of high school students and teachers, on a program called ‘Die High Seas High School‘. One of the English teachers noticed my ridiculously large Australian flag (it was all I could find over here!), and came over to talk - He was quite unexpectedly from Adelaide, Australia, and invited me over for a cooked lunch, and to do a talk about my voyage in English to the students.

I spoke about my voyage across from England to Holland, and they were all rather impressed I knew Johannes Erdmann, who had in fact sailed up to Vlissingen with me. I spoke about my lack of toilet facilities, and explained that two buckets consisted of the toilet, the bathtub, and the kitchen sink. They were rather amused to hear I thought their boat was a floating motel, and insisted on seeing my little ship that I was intending to sail home on. So we walked around to Constellation, at which point there were gasps of astonishment, as they climbed in and out of my little boat, which I had to explain should not be boarded by all of them at the same time, for fear of sinking her.

I’d only spent a tiny amount of time with the crew of this new arrival, but when throwing their lines off, I must admit I felt a little sad. It’s always hard being the one who is left behind - It’s far better to leave first…

It wasn’t long after, that I met a local Mini-Transat (Classe Mini) sailor, who invited me out racing. I can sail a boat in one direction, but I can tell you now: I’m no racer! It was a fun experience, and I’ve always wanted to sail one of these crazy French pocket rockets. I think they are the 21st century answer to the Contessa 26 - In fact, I wouldn’t be suprised if they had a similar length in the water. There was little wind, but you could really feel that these boats go amazingly fast, and crossing the Atlantic in them in the bi-annual race is one incredible feat. It was also interesting to be on a boat specifically designed for solo offshore racing. They are virtually unsinkable, with foam core added for buoancy, and have a number of important safety features, such as the transom escape hatch, and the ability to completely seal off the cabin. Demasted or similar, I think you could ‘happily’ curl up in your floating pod and survive quite nicely. I’d love to have unlimited funds and the aid of a naval architect to build the ultimate one-handed offshore cruising boat! The minitransat is a nice idea for racing, but for my own super-boat design, I’d lessen her beam, increase the length a little, and up the displacement, increase the weight and strength of the keel, yet keep all the safety and unsinkable traits - I would now like to be referred to as ‘Nick Jaffe, RNA, PE’.

After my racing experience, I suprisingly found another Contessa 26 in the marina. Noticing the owner onboard, I found out via the son being a translator, that the boat was named ‘Fantasia’, and had in fact come from England, via the French canal system, the Med, and around the Cape of Good Hope, right back up to Alicante! Who the skipper was, I have no idea, but if you know, please mail or leave a comment, I’d be most interested. I’ve been invited to lunch tomorrow by the owner, which I’m looking forward to.

So, while I’ve had a lot to do in La Coruna, none of it really solves my immediate problem of be stuck in an economic ice berg. I’ve tried to motivate myself by reading the adventures of Shane Acton, aboard Super Shrimpy, the 18ft plywood boat which he sailed around the world on with less money than I, but alas, it’s neither made me any money, nor inspired any further ’southing.

What comes next, I’m not really sure. But one thing is for certain, I need to learn Spanish!

nick.

And I thought Biscay was big! Over the last seven days, I’ve sailed 200metres… Yes, I’m still in La Coruna. Why? Well, when I say I’ve run out of money, I don’t lie. But firstly, thank you to Paul & Lisa, from the Swedish sailing vessel Eekaros, currently docked in Amsterdam. They’re going around the world, and currently saving for a larger boat. Their current one isn’t that much bigger than mine, and they’re totaling three persons onboard (including the kitten)! I was looked after like family while in Holland by these lovely sailors, and they’ve assisted me again with some funds to keep me eating until my first paycheck. Here is a picture of us, with me wearing the same jumper I’ve had on since I left Australia, in 2006!

Monnikendam, Holland

Yes, I know the fenders are down. The engine failed, I wasn’t suppsed to be sailing…

Thanks guys!

A few days after arriving here, by great coincidence, someone I previously worked for via the web emailed with a job. So, being in a fortunate position where work is achievable if I just have an Internet connection, I’m staying here for a month to refill the boat with beans & diesel. And make repairs… I don’t earn a lot (seriously, working in a bar pays better) but if it means I can keep sailing, then I’ll do anything.

I’ve been here for seven days now, and it’s been fantastic. I’ve met really nice liveaboards, had a chance to recover from my sleepless Biscay crossing, and La Coruna is an interestingly transient place. There are ships from Norway, America, and even Japan coming through, and all going places far away. You can tell the boats that have made it this far, are not the day cruisers normally encountered when out sailing. The boats here have crossed the Atlantic, are just about to, or are heading off to other distant places. This also means that a lot of people are arriving from Biscay, all with stories of fighting FORCE 10 CONDITIONS. I’m well aware Biscay is more than capable of throwing up such harrowing storms, but I must admit, I’ve been taking Force reports with a grain of salt, and automatically reducing them by 3 points. It’s a little bit like estimating wave heights at sea - If you think the swell is six metres, the true height is half. I’ve been guilty of it myself, but I blame horizon physics, a secret branch of a science I just invented.

It is also really exciting that I’ve been able to get a little work while in La Coruna, because this means that with about 75% probability (I’ve just calculated that on a large computer), I will actually be making my own Atlantic crossing by the end of the year, or, at the very beginning of the next. This is really amazing, because I never thought I would be able to achieve it so soon - Every port I’ve arrived in, I’ve told the locals that I can’t continue, and that I’ll have to ‘winter’. And every time, something crops up that allows me to just move a little bit further. Also, having done with Biscay, I can relax for a little bit without fearing the weather too much. Biscay was a massive hurdle for the logistics of the trip, however now I can almost day hop down to Lisbon, wait for another good forecast, and go direct to Madeira.

I will probably wait in Madeira, or nearby for another few weeks, possibly I can even work again to make further repairs, and hopefully arrive in the Caribbean with more than $14 and six overdrawn accounts. So far, repairs scheduled for La Coruna, involve replacing all the chain plates for the standing rigging, installing an electronic bilge pump, replacing the mainswitch (again) and generally tidying up.

Other than that, my stay here will mostly involve being cabin bound with my laptop, watching the pilot vessels come in and out of the marina.

nick.