Passage Logs
Andy Schell
Farthest North! Isbjorn Crosses the Arctic ...

At 0459 this morning, Isbjorn and her crew crossed 66º 33’ north latitude, and entered the Arctic. I’d have preferred to do it under sail of course, but motor-sailing on an oily calm sea, the mountains of northern Norway in the background standing watch in the silvery morning light…well, it ain’t that bad!

Farthest North! Isbjorn Crosses the Arctic Circle
Sea Stories
Andy Schell
Landfall in Sweden (Redux)

In lieu of my recent arrival to Sweden today (I flew overnight from Newark-Oslo-Stockholm, and am going on one hour of sleep and four cups of strong Swedish coffee), I wanted to re-post this blog from two years ago when Arcturus made her first arrival in Sweden. It was an emotional moment for Mia and I (especially Mia), and it seems simultaneously like yesterday and ages ago.

Arcturus has spent all of last winter hauled out in Öregrund - we'll launch her next week, and get back to living aboard for the remainder of the summer here in Scandinavia. No plans yet on where we're headed, but stay tuned. I'll be writing about it. In the meantime, enjoy this revisited post...

Landfall in Sweden (Redux)
Ocean Racing
Andy Schell
Newport-Bermuda Race 2014: Cruising lessons ...

350 NW of Bermuda...

'Sleijride' is nearly halfway back to Newport on the return delivery following the Bermuda Race last week. We're in cruising mode again, down to four crew (from six), and enjoying single-handed watches steered by autopilot, 9 hours of rest, reading (!), and motor sailing through the calms.

Newport-Bermuda Race 2014: Cruising lessons from ocean racers
Andy Schell
A Sailor's Marathon Guide, Day 6: Running for ...

My mom is directly responsible for a lot of things in my life, most obviously life itself. I'm writing this from Bermuda because she constantly espoused "do what you love, and the money will follow." But it's that one day in the driveway when we were throwing the football and I asked her to help me get healthy and in shape that I'm reminded of most today. I wrote about it last week. And if I die at age 62 like she did with an alien growing inside my head, well, I will have lived well. As she did, thanks to her.

A Sailor's Marathon Guide, Day 6: Running for Mom
Andy Schell
Don Street Stories: When to abandon ship?

Here comes No. 4 in the ongoing 'Don Street Stories' series. This one was intended to be run as a sidebar to the magazine article, and it's less of a 'story' than it is my own thoughts on one of Street's most vehement opinions, and that's manual bilge pump capacity. Don't get me wrong - I agree 100% with Street that boats going offshore need more pump capacity - but my thoughts below represent what I see actually happening in the ocean sailing world, not necessarily what I think is right. Interestingly enough, Patrick Shaughnessy, President of Farr Yacht Design, and I talked about this very topic in my last podcast episode. Here goes.

Don Street Stories: When to abandon ship?

Andy's Blog

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ISBJORN Trans-Atlantic p. 10 // Fixing Broken Things

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ISBJORN Trans-Atlantic p. 10 // Fixing Broken Things

About a week ago I had found a broken screw on deck, and had quizzed the crew at dinner to figure out where it had come from. I knew of course that it had come from the pole track on the front of the mast (it’s never good by the way to find broken screws that have fallen out of the rigging!). At the time we noticed just that one and two others - three, total - that had succumbed to the shearing forces of the sail on the pole. We just repositioned the car higher or lower on the track and figured that’d be fine.

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ISBJORN Trans-Atlantic p. 9 // Time!? You’re Talking Time Man?!

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ISBJORN Trans-Atlantic p. 9 // Time!? You’re Talking Time Man?!

A whale came to visit on my mom’s birthday, after I had written that tearful post about stargazing early in the morning, before dawn. Later that day the rains came while I was on watch, again alone, and RIGHT next to the boat a 20-30-foot minke whale made his presence known with a puff of air and a glimpse of his dorsal fin. He stayed with me for over an hour, diving and playing under the boat.

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ISBJORN Trans-Atlantic p. 8 // A Pre-Dawn Cry to Celebrate Mom's Birthday

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ISBJORN Trans-Atlantic p. 8 // A Pre-Dawn Cry to Celebrate Mom's Birthday

My mom would have turned 69 today had she lived. Today marks the second birthday I’ve celebrated at sea on this trans-Atlantic passage - mine, with Mia’s birthday balls dessert on Jan 25; and mom’s this morning, where on my 0200-0400 early morning watch I shared a quiet cry and contemplated the sea and the stars for two hours by myself in the cockpit, gazing out at the vastness and just being.

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FULL WONKA! // Free Crew Space with the Golden Postcard!

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FULL WONKA! // Free Crew Space with the Golden Postcard!

One card will be inserted into each book before shipping! AND best yet - ONE single postcard was signed in GOLD INK, to be inserted into book no. 80 of 250...we’ll randomly select one of the orders, and if you’re the lucky golden postcard holder, you’ll get a FREE 1-week passage on either ISBJÖRN or ICE BEAR with 59 NORTH, a $3,400 value! There’s still about 100 copies left to pre-order, so go get ‘em! Shipping in early March!

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Magic Dolphins

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Magic Dolphins

The night’s have been dark. No moon and clear, cloudless skies makes for some epic stargazing. When I came up at 2230, I turned off the steaming light, which we’d been using to keep an eye on spinnaker trim in the dark. I also had Mia kill the tricolor and the instrument lights. With those extinguished, all that was left was the natural light of the stars, which filled the sky in a way impossible to see ashore. They covered every inch of black sky, from horizon to horizon, the lower ones even casting a shimmering light over the flat, dark sea.

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Wind Off, Wind On

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Wind Off, Wind On

I find it interesting how stretches of ocean seem to have a kind of character about them. The sea-state, despite the lack of wind over these first two days, has been decidedly annoying. Waves from both quarters slewing the boat around. If it’d have been calm, there would have been just enough breeze to sail. But as it were, yesterday afternoon, the waves overpowered the light wind and the sails, rather than pulling, just slatted and banged around.

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Refitting Isbjorn // 2018's First Shakedown Sail

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Refitting Isbjorn // 2018's First Shakedown Sail

Andy talks about Isbjorn's big refit and the 70-mile shakedown cruise he and Mia did up the west coast of Sweden. Special thanks to Helly Hansen for inviting us to their event; and to Isbjorn crewmember Karl for composing and performing the music motifs on this week's show.

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Isbjorn Offshore: Weather from WRI, going direct to Annapolis!

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Isbjorn Offshore: Weather from WRI, going direct to Annapolis!

Since I emailed in this morning, we've received the WX update I was looking for from WRI, and it basically confirmed my analysis of the GRIB forecast I got earlier. They sent a fantastically detailed outlook, which I won't include here, but their conclusion was basically what I'd hoped for earlier.

Volvo Ocean Race Sailors in the ARC (Again!)

Volvo Ocean Race Sailors in the ARC (Again!)

Last year I wrote about how the ARC attracts professional sailors. I highlighted two in particular, Volvo Ocean Race skipper of Team Russia and two-time Olympic sailor in the Star class Andreas Hanakamp, and ocean racing legend Magnus Olsson.

Unsurprisingly, the boats that they sailed on fared particularly well in 2011 - Andreas was navigator aboard the Class 40Vaquita, which took it's class in the racing division.

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Local culture in Anse La Raye

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Local culture in Anse La Raye

The locals call it 'bay of the rays.' It's a fishing village south of Castries (St. Lucia's capital), a sleepy place on the beach, quite the opposite of the hustle and bustle of Rodney Bay marina, where the ARC has taken over for a couple of weeks. It's crazier than ever in the ARC Village at Rodney Bay marina - just this morning, five boats crossed the finish line within minutes of each other, making for some excitement on the docks as the Yellow Shirts made space for them. With over 150 boats now in port, that space is getting hard to come by. But it's all in fun.

 
 

59º North Sailing // In Conjunction With: