Friday, February 27, 2009
Dateline: Miami - Shake-a-leg Yacht Club

After 9 days at sea alone in a 21 foot boat Nathan has completed his 1000 mile qualifying sail for the MiniTransat race.

This is the message from minimus race central…

“It is 15:42 and Nathan just called from his cell phone…he is within 15 minutes of arriving at the dock where he understands the folks at Shake-a-Leg have arranged a little welcoming thing for him.

I’m sure we all wish we could be on the dock to catch his lines!!!!”

We all congratulate Nathan on this huge accomplishment.

Here are a couple of posts. One is from Greg von Rossem and the other from Alison Fraser and John Curtis minimus team central.

Some of the toughest sailing of Nathan’s ocean sailing career awaits…

Nathan has approximately 131 nm to the finish of his 1000 nm, circumnavigation of the Bahamas.

I spoke with him early this morning discussing his final approach to Miami. He was in good spirits, and was well rested, looking forward to the final and perhaps the most challenging stage of this leg, IE Gulf Stream.

It has been blowing NE for days which means that the waves have been piling against themselves in the steady 2-4 knt current, like standing rapids. The crossing will be difficult as the waves will be short in length and steep in height, with no pattern.

He is well aware of what lies ahead and has taken the necessary precautions of strapping everything down, above and below decks. He sees the sense of accomplishment waiting for him at the other side.

With the forecast winds predicting 10-15 knots from the NE/E he should be able to maintain his current speed of 6 knts throughout which will inevitably increase once he is in the Stream. His ETA will be approximately 21 hrs, which should bring him into Miami around 1400hrs on Friday.

Let’s wish him well!

Greg

Second post

Nathan ventured onto the Great Bahama Bank last night and is gearing up to cross the Gulf Stream in the next day or so. Yesterday, knowing that the conditions would take a great deal of mental and physical strength, Nathan inhaled a big freeze-dried meal and put a bag of trail mix close at hand. He experienced choppy waves and strong winds last night and these, coupled with a 2-3 knot current directly from behind, made it very difficult to steer. These conditions also make it challenging to sail based on apparent wind angle. Nathan still has lots of food and water on board and is in good spirits. He is understandably feeling tired and is looking forward to a good nights sleep, one in which he doesn’t have to be tending to sails, lines and autohelms.

click on the link below to check his most recent position report
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=23.5035,-78.6509&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

From MST 680

Here’s a forecast for Nathan’s return North. The question is how fast will the Gulf Stream elevator carry the Boys and Girls of Canada back to Miami?

Wednesday
Northeast winds around 15 knots. Seas 3 to 5 feet. Intracoastal waters a moderate chop. Slight chance of showers.
Wednesday Night
Northeast winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 2 to 4 feet near shore and up to 4 to 6 feet in the Gulf Stream. Intracoastal waters a moderate chop. Slight chance of showers.
Thursday
Northeast winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 4 to 6 feet. Intracoastal waters choppy in exposed areas.
Thursday Night
Northeast winds 10 to 15 knots. Near shore…seas 2 to 4 feet subsiding to 2 feet or less. In the Gulf Stream…seas 3 to 5 feet. Intracoastal waters a moderate chop.
Friday
East winds 10 to 15 knots becoming 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 feet or less near shore and up to 2 to 4 feet in the Gulf Stream. Intracoastal waters a moderate chop.

Next leg a big one for Nathan and the Boys and Girls Club of Canada

Nathan rounded his third waypoint last night around 9:00pm and progressed slowly overnight. This morning he had 17-18 kts on the beam and boat speed was consistently between 7-8 kts, with the occasional surge 10 kts when riding a swell.

He is in great spirits but is looking forward to returning home to Kingston to see everyone and share his stories.

“Caz”, the man who took Nathan and the boat to Miami in early January called last night to see how Nathan was doing and when he would be in. Caz has a boat to deliver to Montreal and will be leaving Miami on Friday and offered to drive Nathan back to save him a little money. Caz would then bring the boat back to Nathan in the next few weeks when his schedule permitted. Although the timing is unlikely to work out, it was an incredibly generous and thoughtful offer…just another example of the enormous support that Nathan has received!

Many of you will have received an email yesterday that appeared to be from Nathan, encouraging you to support a company. Rest assured, Nathan did not send this email and we are working to find out the source of the email and put a stop to it. Thank you for your patience.

here is the latest position report
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=21.5037,-74.7516&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

John Curtis
Sport Law - Mediation - Conflict Coaching
613.328.4015

“Nathan has passed his first way-point, Hole in the Wall. He reports that yesterday was a beautiful day of ocean sailing with clear skies and winds between 18 and 25 knots. Now that he is so far off-shore boat traffic is limited to cruise ships which Nathan has nicknamed “floating disco balls”. These are much easier to see than the freighters he encountered at the beginning of his journey.

While making sandwiches yesterday Nathan had an unexpected visitor; a flying fish jumped on board. Preferring his peanut butter, Nathan tossed it back into the ocean. While at the helm during the night he was actually hit in the head by another of these flying fish! It too was promptly returned to the ocean.

The wind is light this morning, only 4 knots, and the next way-point is 181 miles away. ”

Nathan’s Position this morning.

Nathan left Shake-a-Leg Marina yesterday around 4:00 pm with a wonderful send-off. KYC friends Melodie and John were on hand to push Nathan off the dock and take pictures, as were a group of school children who were very interested in Nathan’s adventure. Before leaving, Nathan spent some time answering the students’ questions. As Nathan did his final preparations, the students left for their next activity, swimming. Nathan didn’t realize it at the time, but the students were headed out to a sand bar that he would sail past as he left the harbour. As he sailed by, the students shouted “Good Luck Nathan, you can do it!”. Nathan’s sails were filled by these positive words of encouragement from the young voices long before the wind filled in.

The port of Miami was very busy yesterday afternoon and last night with five container (freighter) ships and their accompanying tugs, making it necessary for Nathan to pay close attention to where everyone was and in which direction they were headed. This is something that can be particularly challenging at night.

As of 6:00 Thursday morning, Nathan had been unable to have his first cup of coffee yet. The six foot swells made turning on the “stove” challenging. The wind was blowing 20kts and he turned the corner towards Hole in the Wall, his first ocean way-point overnight.

All systems are working well and Nathan is looking forward to a good day of sailing ahead.

Here is Nathan’s latest position. Click on it to see him on google maps. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=25.849,-79.8952&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Nathan’s quest to be Canada’s sole entry in the 2009 min Transat race to start in September continues….

The quest continues but as with many things in life not quite according to plan. Nathan fly into SYR and into the teeth of a northern winter on Sunday night. Boys and Girls Club sits up on the hard in Southern Florida. Its mast up and almost ready for another qualifying attempt in February. Who would have thought that sailing a 1000-plus miles would prove such a challenge. But a challenge it is.

The current thinking is that Nathan will return early in February and set off again. This time better prepared and more knowledgeable of the boat, the course and himself. Working too, in Nathan’s favour is the terrific network and team. When the going got tough, a great number of friends and fans mobilized to help Nathan through some tough patches. Nathan’s courage inspired us.

But the current of time is working against Nathan. Specifically the time to get the boat packed up and shipped to Europe where a second round of qualifications continue. But first things first…

Nathan and the minimus sailing team will regroup, rebound and relaunch over the next few weeks. Nathan is honoured to have you on-board. Stay with us, your support is important!

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to thank everyone for coming to the Extreme Sailing event that we held at KYC on Tuesday.

Brian is a marvelous speaker and a very dynamic individual.  We had a bit of scare mid-afternoon as Brian ran into a little trouble in upstate New York.  I won’t tell the story here, because I really don’t want him on some terrorist watch list,  but ask me to tell you the story the next time I bump into you…
We managed to raise a good bit of money toward the boat, and I am still overwhelmed by the generosity of folks donating without taking the tax deduction.  It means so much to me that people want to contribute to this dream.   It totally reinforces that this is a team effort and I just hope that I can live up to the challenges ahead.  We’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve taken Derek Hatfield’s tag line to heart:   “NEVER GIVE UP!”

I also wanted to send out a huge thank you to the team that made it all happen: Megaera, Lana, Liz, Brandon, Peter K: you helped make this a great event.  And of course Brian, who demonstrated his amazing ability to role with the punches and make it work with cards he’s dealt.  Brian’s generosity and kind spirit came through to everyone who attended.

Any Sharkies reading this may be interested to know that the 2007 North American Championships NOR has been posted you can find it here (direct link to PDF).