Good Evening Everyone,

Lots has been happening, it’s a fluid situation and we want to keep you all in the loop the best we can.

We had a meeting tonight to talk through the issues the minimus team is facing and work on solutions. It was a very productive meeting. I know I felt better afterward. There is still some information missing before we can determine the best course of action but we should know more in a few days. Nathan is keen to re-attempt the qualification as soon as possible.

Here are some possible options:

1. Repair/ replace the batteries and/or charging system, sail back to Miami and start again. The re- attempt could happen soon or in a few weeks depending on other factors such as Nathan’s employer, the equipment needing to be replaced, etc.
2. Obtain permission from the Classe Mini in France to alter the qualification route and set out from Eleuthra for a 1000 mile sail ending in Miami. This would depend on similar factors as above plus obtaining permission from the Class
3. Leave the boat somewhere in the Bahamas for a few weeks (we have had an offer of free dock space in Nassau) and return in February to re-sail the qualification route as specified.

What we need to know:

1. What is actually wrong with the charging system? - (Patrick Sherwin on the Island will be helping with this tomorrow hopefully)
2. Can Nathan get additional time off from work now or later?
3. Would the Classe Mini alter the Course?
4. Can we leave the boat in Eluthera or is Nassau or Miami better?

In any case, it looks like the weather will not be favourable to go anywhere until early Thursday morning. There is nowhere to go but upwind at present and this is an exercise in frustration as the boat is not really designed for extended periods of upwind sailing in heavy wind and large seas even if the auto pilot and charging system are working. The Mini Transat (race he is trying to qualify for) is basically all downwind sailing , hence the design of the boat.

How you can help?

1. Any thoughts or information you might have that would impact on the decision making process would be useful.

2. We need to find Nathan a way of getting or converting his outboard to a long shaft. He was forced to get a tow into the harbour at great expense because the borrowed engine he is using does not reach deep enough into the water to be effective in strong wind and choppy seas. Anyone have a 4 hp long-shaft outboard?

3. We also need to get him a gas powered generator as a back-up battery changing option.

4. Aero plan points in case he has to fly home before doing a re-attempt.

5. Finally he needs a set of outriggers for a 70 ft Sport Fishing power boat. His mast became entangled in some when he was towed in and now the owner is demanding he pay for the damage. Unfortunately, they can only be ordered in pairs. I doubt anyone has a set, but worth asking You never know.

Nathan should have a detailed report out in the next day or so. Internet access is limited so that has not been easy.

I spoke with him tonight. He is in good spirits but not able to do much without someone there to help. It is very windy and he is staying close to the boat to make sure it does not blow loose and get damaged.

Thank you again for all of your support. It means a lot to Nathan knowing that so many people are wishing him well.

More as we know it.

minimus sailing central

Please leave your comments and suggestions using the comment section…

The journey of a 1000 miles begins with the first hoist…

Canada’s Nathan Baron has set sail this morning to circumnavigate the Bahamas in his 21′ sloop called the “Boys and Girls Club of Canada”. Nathan and the minimus sailing team are working to be Canada’s sole entry in the 2009 4500-mile solo race from France to Brazil starting in September.

The weather looks light but favourable for his crossing of the Gulf Stream.

Forecast as of 10:04 am EST on January 11, 2009
Coastal Waters From Deerfield Beach To Ocean Reef, Fl Out 20 Nm-
Waters From Deerfield Beach To Ocean Reef, Fl Extending From 20 Nm
To The Territorial Waters Of The Bahamas-
Rest Of Today
Southeast winds around 5 knots. Seas 2 feet or less.

Tonight

Southeast winds around 5 knots. Seas 2 feet or less. Intracoastal waters smooth. Slight chance of showers.

Monday

Northeast winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Intracoastal waters a light chop. Slight chance of showers.

Monday Night

Northeast winds around 10 knots becoming southeast. Seas 2 feet or less. Intracoastal waters a light chop. Slight chance of showers.

Tuesday

South winds 10 to 15 knots becoming southwest 15 to 20 knots. Seas 2 feet or less building to 2 to 4 feet. Intracoastal waters a moderate chop. Chance of showers.

Splicing and Thawing and Preparing

Spoke with Chris Parker about the weather and a good window to leave. Chris is an expert in Bahamas weather and writes for ocean navigator. Looks like Saturday or Monday are the twp possibilities. Don Kerstens was very kind to donate the money to take advantage of
Chris’s amazing weather knowledge. I feel much better being able to get such good advice from him.

The boat is almost ready to go. we put the mast up yesterday and got the deck and below cleaned up. Sails are bent, and I just have a few tweaks and repairs to make before we are ready for the off. Had to splice a new bobstay and do a few things that I had to wait to thaw before I could do.

Provisions are aboard and the layout down below is all set up for departure. (Things tend to change a lot once we start sailing.

I keep getting lots of question about the boys and girls clubs of canada, and I always smile when people are so interested about how the kids at the club are involved. I take pride in telling people about the fundraising, learning about the ocean and what it means to be a leader. I hope the kids at the club are following along on this adventure. (To Brandy and the LIT Group: Leave a comment on this site, and I will will do my best to answer.)

The Hampton Inn are helping us out with a better rate for my stay at the hotel. James Brown called them up to tell them what I am up to and they have graciously offered a reduced rate and flexibility with my departure date. Hotels are not used to weather windows… (Ironically, the Hampton Inn is the choice of many a sailor down here. Great hotel and the most reasonable rates in Coconut Grove.)

The team at home have been very busy helping to get communications out to folks as well as thinking about the quickly approaching trip to Europe. The classe Mini have recently published the calendar for the coming racing season and it is really important that I get my choice of races submitted before I go. WE are also getting further into the logistics for getting the boat to Europe.

So things are truckin right along. We are a little behind our scheduled departure date ,but that was pretty much to be expected. I’m glad that the boat is starting to look like a proper sailboat again and that things moving along. I just can’t wait to get out there and get sailing!

More soon,

Nathan

Good Morning Friends,

Just wanted to touch base with all of you and let you know my status.

I’ve got a busy day today to getting ready to step the mast and launch. The boat will be launched on the high tide around 3:30.

I’m doing pretty well. Dirty and tired but alright. The marina I’m at is not really set up for me and there are no real showers or anything so that is a mission for later today. I feel a large contrast between myself and all the pretty people in Coconut Grove.

I’m at burger king right now bumming a hotel internet connection, so my communication may be sporadic. I’ll just be working on the boat for most of the day.

I’m trying not to use too much data on my phone in the US because it is very expensive. I am reading incoming mail but am trying to keep my usage down. Watching the weather.

THanks again for all of your help and enthusiasm. I wouldn’t be here without you.

Warm regards,

n

From MST 680

” alt=”Nathan’s proposed course around the Bahamas” />

While watching the Transat news and studying weather has been a constant distraction, I have have been busy trying to get ready for my first big solo trip this weekend. We (the boat and I) will be heading out on Thursday evening for a quick trip to Toronto and back to visit the c-class worlds which are underway at RCYC, then turning around and coming home on Sunday.

Getting the boat ready for this little jaunt has been a lot more work than I thought it would be. Little things like getting the hanging stove rigged, installing the last of the required safety gear, rig inspections and engine maintenance have taken up most of my nights this week. It’s nice to finally be preparing for a longer sail, but it is a bit stressful, because forgetting something could mean the difference between a nice weekend sail and a total disaster. “Thorough preperation” continues to be my mantra, so if I get through all of the stuff on my list done, I should be in pretty good shape. (Knock on wood.)

Over the last two weeks, we’ve been trying to get the boat out in various conditions and start to get a sense of what she can do. The big challenge at the moment is to figure out what sail combinations we should have up in various wind speeds and angles. It’s been a usual fall here in Kingston, so it’s been blowing twenty something for past couple of weeks. I haven’t even had a chance to really test the genoa yet!

Generally I’m very pleased with the boat. Matt Fair and I had a chance to take her out and do some upwind practice in 30+ knots last week, and with two reefs and a jib she was wonderfully balanced. The trip this weekend should be good for taking notes on sails, speeds and stuff. Greg van Rossem and I also had a great downhill run out in the lake last weekend and we had some great speeds, over 11 knots. It’s been SO much fun figuring out the boat and how all of the manouvers go. We’ve certainly got a lot of work to do, but we are definetly off to a good start.

I’ll try and post an update from Toronto, so stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the weekend and the rest of the season. (Remember there is still over a month of sailing left!)

So it’s finally time to break the silence here at Without Letters. I’ve been hesitant to commit much to writing here, as plans have been changing daily (and as much as hourly over the last few days) and I wanted to have some solid stuff to report when I finally broke the silence here. The other part of this is that I am a superstitious sailor and didn’t want to jinx any of the plans that we were trying to put together!

So now that she is back in Kingston I feel safe writing a little bit about the journey home and what’s coming next.

We have a boat!!!

I have had the amazing good fortune to be able to purchase Katie Ambach’s Mini Red Dress of Newport Rhode Island. The boat is almost brand new and has only sailed one race, the Bermuda 1-2. MRD is almost a perfect fit. The boat is ready to start sailing right now, which will let me get a jump on my training schedule. While the boat came with tonnes of gear and bits and pieces, we still have a lot of work to do. We will need to replace sails, work on the deck layout and many other things to make her light, strong and fast. I was joking with the people at work that buying a boat is a lot like buying a friend. This little boat and I will go through a lot together over the next few years, and I am already starting to feel that bond.

Bringing her home to Kingston:

Peter van Rossem and I drove down to Newport on Sunday to pick up the boat and bring her back to Kingston. Sunday afternoon we started taking the boat apart and getting her ready for transport. I was anxiously making notes on how to put her back together again once we got her home. I’m glad I did, as there is an aweful lot of string on a mini.

On Monday morning started the work of getting the boat into the travel cradle at the Newport Shipyard. The yard is an incredible place and the staff are just as good. Everyone was really professional and willing to help at every turn. At one point we had six guys lift the boat up to 45 degrees so we could get the boat set up for the trip home. The boat is over 2000 pounds, so this was no small feat!

I couldn’t have possibly got this done without the help of Katie, Drew and the guys at Newport Shipyard. Peter van Rossem was especially helpful as I would never have the confidence to direct a fork lift driver to push the boat around on the trailer or know the most secure way to lash the boat down to the trailer. A hardy thanks to Pete, I really couldn’t have done it without him.

The Drive Home:

The drive home was pretty uneventful. Peter put up with me anxiously looking in the review mirror every 30 seconds to check and make sure she was still tied down and not moving around too much. While having the boat on a 45 degree angle makes it thinner, it also makes her much taller, over 12’ off the road. Every time we went under a bridge, I held my breath. The next hurdle was getting through customs unscathed.

The ship’s documents were supposed to be delivered to Kingston on Friday afternoon so we would have them before we left. Unfortuneatly the documents didn’t arrive on Friday, so we had to make other arrangments. Alison received the documents at the house on Monday morning and then had to drive down to meet us at the border so that we would have all of the required documents to get through customs.

We arrived at Canadian Customs around 0130, and everything went smoothly. The customs officers were pretty intrigued with this little boat crossing the border in the wee hours of the morning, and I was happy they were more interested in the sailing part rather than scrutinizing the bill of sale and other ship’s documents.

Unloading:

We unloaded her on Tuesday morning at Collins Bay Marina, who graciously offered to sponsor the team with crane arrangements and provide a place to work on the bottom and get the rig and such sorted out. Hub and his crew at Collins Bay Marina were totally fantastic and the unloading process went much more smoothly than the loading process. I can’t thank Hub enough for his help and generosity while we took these first steps with the boat.

It was really fun to hang out at Collins Bay and talk with all of the sailors as they watched up get the boat ready to splash. It’s funny but I never seem to tire of talking with people about this project, and I really enjoyed chatting with the folks on the dock.

Bringing Her Home to the Club:

On Thursday evening Paul and I took the boat back to KYC on a totally windless Lake Ontario. Robert Davis and a couple of guys from the KYC High Performance Team were kind enough to tow us back to the club as the little motor that I had borrowed for the trip was a little short to keep the whole prop in the water.

Bringing her into KYC was one of the most special times of my whole life. The regular Thursday night race was under postponement because of the wind, so as we came closer to the club the horns from the boats circling outside the harbour, and the cheers and happy sounds from the crowd that had assembled on the dock were almost too much for me. All I could think was “we are finally home”.

After showing off the boat and answering many questions from the crowd on the dock, I managed to have a beer before I had an interview with the Whig Standard. The photographer took a few shots and then the reportor and I sat on the boat for a while and did an interview about the race and my plans for the next few years. It was on the front page of the Whig today, which was an excellent way to prolong this awesome day.

This morning, Friday, CBC Radio called to see if I would be interested in doing an interview. So if you have a chance on Monday morning to listen to Ontario Morning, I should be on at some point. It’ll be a live interview, so wish me luck!

What’s Next:

So what now? The work list is already very long and getting longer every time I go to the boat. Over the next few days we will get the electrical systems back up and running and have a few things to re-rig or tune. Then it’s finally time to go sailing!

We’ll start with boat handling practice around the harbour and I’ll start doing some smaller trips on Lake Ontario. The goal for this summer is to get comfortable in the boat in a variety of conditions and get as many hours on board as I can.

On the fundraising side, we still have a long, long way to go. We will soon need to order another set of sails, get power charging arrangements sorted out and get more of the required safety gear on board. Getting the money together to get these vital systems sorted out is a top priority and we’ll be working hard to get the message out to people that we really do need your help to get the boat ready for offshore sailing.

So now that the silence is broken I hope to get the momentum going on this blog, as I really like being able to tell everyone about what’s happening with the campaign. Super exciting times, and as always I’m excited to share the process with you.

Well last night I finally unveiled my plans to compete in the 2009 Mini Transat, and I thought that I should finally break the silence here.

I’ve been hesitant to start blogging about my plans as everything was coming together, there were so many things that I was unsure of or wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about. Now my plans are pretty laid down and I just need to execute the plan. And I want to talk about it.

For those of you who missed it, I hope to compete in the 2009 Mini Transat, a single-handed race across the Atlantic. If you would like to learn a little more about the race, check out my website.

Last night I gave a “press conference” at the club and did a talk on the race. You can get the slides here. (WARNING: big file, please download once as I’m a poor sailor.) (Edit: If you would like a copy of the slides, please drop me an email and I will send them to you.) I was going to record audio, but I forgot hit the record button. (It’s bloody nerve wracking having TV cameras in your face!)
So now it is time to get out there and start talking to people. Lindsey has had a tonne of ideas and it’s now a matter of making the calls and setting up the appointments. I’m excited to get out there and tell people about the race.

I’ll be writing more often and I hope that you will come back and read about what’s happening. I think this is going to be a pretty good ride, and I’m really looking forward to sharing it with you.