A proper shakedown cruise
Most of us learn our seamanship hopping around the coast. An ocean crossing is a big step up from this and you need to design your passage planning to help you graduate from coastal hopper to ocean crosser. It helps to have previous experience of offshore sailing just as it helps to have read every sailing book you can and to have worked on your boat till your frozen fingers are raw. But when all that is done you move to a new and practical element in your preparation: the shakedown cruise.
The shakedown cruise builds knowledge of yourself, your crew and your boat. Knowledge conquers fear. That’s why your shakedown passages must be varied and appropriate as you gravitate to your Atlantic casting-off point. Avid learners like you will seize every chance of five days and nights offshore instead of another five days hopping from marina to marina. You already know about marinas but a week at sea is money in the bank for when you feel the frisson of anxiety of finally having nothing but the Americas ahead of you.
Petronella and I were pretty well ready but I wasn’t so sure of the crew. And if I had been sure of them something else would have cropped up to worry me. So shakedown cruises were an important part of our preparation. Some of our trips were more of a shakedown cruise than others but I didn’t stop thinking of our journeys as shakedowns till we were a mile or so out of the Casamance river with about 3,000 miles already under our keel. A shakedown cruise is an attitude of mind. The more you live a chaotic fear-filled life the more you need to see every passage as a confidence bolstering learning experience.
Our first shakedowns were simple affairs when we left the marina and took Petronella beyond the Plymouth harbour breakwater to feel the ocean and do some tacking and gybing. Simple but vital as a first step in bringing us all together as a crew.
The second shakedown was the short trip along the coast from Plymouth to Falmouth. We put into Fowey so there was no need for an overnighter on this sometimes troublesome stretch of coast, where the wind blows on your nose. We made the Helford River our point of departure from Britain. By then we had all done plenty of harbour work and pilotage and discovered the leaks and better ways to stow gear.
Neither of these "so called shakedown cruises" called for much deliberation. However, the third one did because it really was going to be a tester: across the Bay of Biscay to North West Spain. This was a step up from sneaking round a harbour breakwater or hopping down a familiar coast and I wanted something special from this passage. I wanted something new for me and the crew and something close to ocean sailing. This wasn’t about taking the easiest way open to us (not that I consider the inside passage through the Chenal du Four easy but I had done it a few times before). The point of Biscay was to give my crew the absolute novelty of five or seven days spent far out at sea. And for me it was about the absolute necessity of observing how well this new bunch fitted together.
If you haven’t had much ocean or long-distance sailing experiences, or if you have time available to gradually work up to your first Atlantic crossing, you could plan a shakedown cruise or a preliminary ocean journey as a “there and back” summer trip before setting off to the Caribbean for real. There are many opportunities to indulge yourself before and during your first Atlantic crossing.
I had already sailed from Essex to La Rochelle and back one summer and from Plymouth to La Coruña and back in another summer. Summer trips must of necessity be short and I really don’t know why it never occurred to me just to leave the boat there and have a second or third season to explore as I had done in The Netherlands. I would do that now. Indeed, I am doing that now. Facilities are plentiful, secure and good all the way down from southern Brittany and along the Algarve coast. And of the four groups of Atlantic Islands I would be very happy to leave a boat unattended over winter in the Canaries. The whole region has much to commend itself to the sailor and the cheaper marina and boatyard fees relative to Britain mean that you save more than enough for the airfares.
Any of the nearest groups of Atlantic islands - the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries - can be done as a summer shakedown cruise or as a step on your onward journey. Certainly, northern European yachts routinely visit the Azores and Madeira as a summer cruise and return to their home ports. The Cape Verdes is a little too far for a summer return trip but could be on your Milk Run. It was on my Milk Run itinerary but I never made it there, even though my visit to Senegal gave me a good setting off point to go there
On your Milk Run across the Atlantic the winds and currents usually mean that northern European sailors should visit the Azores first since they will be carried towards Madeira and the Canaries before they pick up the Trade Wind s to sail to the Caribbean. If sailors aren’t ready to make the crossing they can stay over in the Azores and continue in another year, or explore the archipelago before returning to Britain. But a good plan would be to go from the Azores via Madeira to the Algarve or the Canaries before making the Atlantic crossing. The plan fits well into the seasonal weather pattern. An early summer cruise to the Azores and no pressure to reach the Algarve or the Canaries till October or November, in time to start your Atlantic crossing between late November and January. The timing of this plan carries scope for change.
I would think twice about leaving my boat unattended over winter in the Azores or Madeira, though I’d be happy to spend a winter in either place if I stayed on board. But you don’t need to. You can use these islands as places to visit as you sail between northern and southern Europe. They are wonderful destinations in their own right, usually blessed by good summer weather and helpful winds to get you there from Britain and take you on to Iberian and Algarve harbours.The Canaries and the Algarve allow skippers to delay their crossing for as many winters as they choose, whether to make repairs or find new crew or just to explore the Mediterranean instead of the Caribbean.
The shakedown cruise I have in mind is a serious one. Indeed at some point on it you may well have sailed further than you will on the ocean crossing. You need to have the essential gear before you start the shakedown or use the cruise to thoroughly test the gear you have with the idea of improving it.
Excerpts from Your First Atlantic Crossing, 4th edition
Most of us learn our seamanship hopping around the coast. An ocean crossing is a big step up from this and you need to design your passage planning to help you graduate from coastal hopper to ocean crosser. It helps to have previous experience of offshore sailing just as it helps to have read every sailing book you can and to have worked on your boat till your frozen fingers are raw. But when all that is done you move to a new and practical element in your preparation: the shakedown cruise.
The shakedown cruise builds knowledge of yourself, your crew and your boat. Knowledge conquers fear. That’s why your shakedown passages must be varied and appropriate as you gravitate to your Atlantic casting-off point. Avid learners like you will seize every chance of five days and nights offshore instead of another five days hopping from marina to marina. You already know about marinas but a week at sea is money in the bank for when you feel the frisson of anxiety of finally having nothing but the Americas ahead of you.
Petronella and I were pretty well ready but I wasn’t so sure of the crew. And if I had been sure of them something else would have cropped up to worry me. So shakedown cruises were an important part of our preparation. Some of our trips were more of a shakedown cruise than others but I didn’t stop thinking of our journeys as shakedowns till we were a mile or so out of the Casamance river with about 3,000 miles already under our keel. A shakedown cruise is an attitude of mind. The more you live a chaotic fear-filled life the more you need to see every passage as a confidence bolstering learning experience.
Our first shakedowns were simple affairs when we left the marina and took Petronella beyond the Plymouth harbour breakwater to feel the ocean and do some tacking and gybing. Simple but vital as a first step in bringing us all together as a crew.
The second shakedown was the short trip along the coast from Plymouth to Falmouth. We put into Fowey so there was no need for an overnighter on this sometimes troublesome stretch of coast, where the wind blows on your nose. We made the Helford River our point of departure from Britain. By then we had all done plenty of harbour work and pilotage and discovered the leaks and better ways to stow gear.
Neither of these "so called shakedown cruises" called for much deliberation. However, the third one did because it really was going to be a tester: across the Bay of Biscay to North West Spain. This was a step up from sneaking round a harbour breakwater or hopping down a familiar coast and I wanted something special from this passage. I wanted something new for me and the crew and something close to ocean sailing. This wasn’t about taking the easiest way open to us (not that I consider the inside passage through the Chenal du Four easy but I had done it a few times before). The point of Biscay was to give my crew the absolute novelty of five or seven days spent far out at sea. And for me it was about the absolute necessity of observing how well this new bunch fitted together.
If you haven’t had much ocean or long-distance sailing experiences, or if you have time available to gradually work up to your first Atlantic crossing, you could plan a shakedown cruise or a preliminary ocean journey as a “there and back” summer trip before setting off to the Caribbean for real. There are many opportunities to indulge yourself before and during your first Atlantic crossing.
I had already sailed from Essex to La Rochelle and back one summer and from Plymouth to La Coruña and back in another summer. Summer trips must of necessity be short and I really don’t know why it never occurred to me just to leave the boat there and have a second or third season to explore as I had done in The Netherlands. I would do that now. Indeed, I am doing that now. Facilities are plentiful, secure and good all the way down from southern Brittany and along the Algarve coast. And of the four groups of Atlantic Islands I would be very happy to leave a boat unattended over winter in the Canaries. The whole region has much to commend itself to the sailor and the cheaper marina and boatyard fees relative to Britain mean that you save more than enough for the airfares.
Any of the nearest groups of Atlantic islands - the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries - can be done as a summer shakedown cruise or as a step on your onward journey. Certainly, northern European yachts routinely visit the Azores and Madeira as a summer cruise and return to their home ports. The Cape Verdes is a little too far for a summer return trip but could be on your Milk Run. It was on my Milk Run itinerary but I never made it there, even though my visit to Senegal gave me a good setting off point to go there
On your Milk Run across the Atlantic the winds and currents usually mean that northern European sailors should visit the Azores first since they will be carried towards Madeira and the Canaries before they pick up the Trade Wind s to sail to the Caribbean. If sailors aren’t ready to make the crossing they can stay over in the Azores and continue in another year, or explore the archipelago before returning to Britain. But a good plan would be to go from the Azores via Madeira to the Algarve or the Canaries before making the Atlantic crossing. The plan fits well into the seasonal weather pattern. An early summer cruise to the Azores and no pressure to reach the Algarve or the Canaries till October or November, in time to start your Atlantic crossing between late November and January. The timing of this plan carries scope for change.
I would think twice about leaving my boat unattended over winter in the Azores or Madeira, though I’d be happy to spend a winter in either place if I stayed on board. But you don’t need to. You can use these islands as places to visit as you sail between northern and southern Europe. They are wonderful destinations in their own right, usually blessed by good summer weather and helpful winds to get you there from Britain and take you on to Iberian and Algarve harbours.The Canaries and the Algarve allow skippers to delay their crossing for as many winters as they choose, whether to make repairs or find new crew or just to explore the Mediterranean instead of the Caribbean.
The shakedown cruise I have in mind is a serious one. Indeed at some point on it you may well have sailed further than you will on the ocean crossing. You need to have the essential gear before you start the shakedown or use the cruise to thoroughly test the gear you have with the idea of improving it.
Excerpts from Your First Atlantic Crossing, 4th edition