Long Distance Cruising

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Tidahapah

Tidahapah

Guru
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
1,859
Location
Australia
Vessel Name
Flora
Vessel Make
Timber southern cray boat
I recently got hold of a small book called “Nordlys Around the World”.
A small self printed book from Jim & Nancy Murphy, who in 1998 did a 5 year circumnavigation in a 52 ft timber motor cruiser.
They had the boat built in Brisbane and for a shakedown cruise went round the top to Fremantle for the first defence of the Americas Cup and back. A fair sort of cruise in anybody’s language.
After that ,said what do we do next, answer “go to the Med” so they did.
After that, across the Atlantic to South America up the Coast into the Great Lakes down the inter Coastal waterway, thru Panama Canal up the West Coast to the top part of Canada/Alaska and then back down to California across the Pacific and home.
Quite awe inspiring for me.
The vessel is a typical wooden motor cruiser as found on the Queensland coast here in Australia.
Specs
Length: 16.2 mts
Beam: 5 mts
Draught: 1.8 mts
Displacement: 32 Tonnes
Engine: Gardner 6 LXB

This is no special designed off shore cruiser and this couple took off in 1998 (before GPS) and did the whole bit.
Just shows that it can be done and doesn’t require millions of dollars.
They did 52,000 nautical miles, 7968 engine hours and burnt 96000 lts of diesel.
In this time they slipped the boat 7 times but never had any engine trouble, some refrigeration problems and suffered some weather damage to the wheel house in the Bahamas.
To view a photo of boats similar to Nordlys , go to the following web site and check the photos of either Flemingo or Waverley
The new owner is a member of the forum.

http://www.millarsphoto.com.au/demo/category/36

The book is not in print but I am in the process of scaning it so as to have a copy.
 

Attachments

  • 002.jpg
    002.jpg
    32.5 KB · Views: 1,076
  • 001.bmp
    85.3 KB · Views: 147
Some times simple is better and not having others saying it can not be done or you need this. There was a time when boating did not require all the fancy expensive stuff.
 
It still doesn't require it, although we like it around for peace of mind. All that stuff might not help us make good decisions or save our asses if the decision we make is the wrong one.
 
Just a note on GPS, the first satellite went up in 1989 and the system was fully operational in 1994. By order of Ronald Reagan it was freely available for civilian use. "Selective Availability" which degraded accuracy, was turned off in 2000 by order of Bill Clinton. Prior to GPS we had Loran in much of the Northern Hemisphere......

Global Positioning System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Phil Fill said:
Some times simple is better and not having others saying it can not be done or you need this....
Click to expand...

Your right! We recently met this Swiss couple who had just crossed the Atlantic. When they were crossing the Med the boat was a little rolly so they stopped and added the paravanes. He built the boat (38') in their backyard; aluminum construction, without ballast. They plan on doing a circumnavigation. Single diesel, no propane, a simple boat. I wish we had more time together and that there wasn't a language barrier.
 

Attachments

  • 008.JPG
    008.JPG
    188.8 KB · Views: 210
  • 009.jpg
    009.jpg
    82 KB · Views: 201
  • 010.jpg
    010.jpg
    93.5 KB · Views: 198
  • 007.JPG
    007.JPG
    162.5 KB · Views: 194
  • 003.JPG
    003.JPG
    185.6 KB · Views: 192
  • 005.JPG
    005.JPG
    188 KB · Views: 195
Sweet!......Amateur Backyard Boat Builders rule.
 
Tad,
Your right.
We had the old satellite navigators before the GPS. These were not overly relible and you could only get a fix every couple of hours or so.
We had them on some of the tankers I was sailing on at the time.
I got my first computer based GPS chart plotter in 94 whilst I was still building my boat and took it to sea on one of our tankers to trial it.
Havn't looked back.
Jim didn't have any of this and if you look the boat it wouldn't be classed as "Ocean capable" by todays standards.
Cheers
Benn
 
Ed Gillette took this concept to its logical end after pondering what the Mount Everest of sea kayaking would be, by sea kayaking solo 2200 miles from California to Hawaii, navigating (well before GPS) by sextant.

"Most people think large vessels are the most seaworthy ones. But this is not always true. Survival at sea depends on preparation, experience, and prudence -- not on the size of your boat." (Ed Gillette)

Here's his article about it;

Marblehead Magazine Ed Gillette: California to Hawaii
 
All he needed for navigation was a little compass and to watch the jet trails going to Hawaii. Very doubtful you could get a meaningful sight from a kayak.
 
Tidahapah said:
I recently got hold of a small book called “Nordlys Around the World”.
A small self printed book from Jim & Nancy Murphy, who in 1998 did a 5 year circumnavigation in a 52 ft timber motor cruiser.
They had the boat built in Brisbane and for a shakedown cruise went round the top to Fremantle for the first defence of the Americas Cup and back. A fair sort of cruise in anybody’s language.
After that ,said what do we do next, answer “go to the Med” so they did.
After that, across the Atlantic to South America up the Coast into the Great Lakes down the inter Coastal waterway, thru Panama Canal up the West Coast to the top part of Canada/Alaska and then back down to California across the Pacific and home.
Quite awe inspiring for me.
The vessel is a typical wooden motor cruiser as found on the Queensland coast here in Australia.
Specs
Length: 16.2 mts
Beam: 5 mts
Draught: 1.8 mts
Displacement: 32 Tonnes
Engine: Gardner 6 LXB

This is no special designed off shore cruiser and this couple took off in 1998 (before GPS) and did the whole bit.
Just shows that it can be done and doesn’t require millions of dollars.
They did 52,000 nautical miles, 7968 engine hours and burnt 96000 lts of diesel.
In this time they slipped the boat 7 times but never had any engine trouble, some refrigeration problems and suffered some weather damage to the wheel house in the Bahamas.
To view a photo of boats similar to Nordlys , go to the following web site and check the photos of either Flemingo or Waverley
The new owner is a member of the forum.

http://www.millarsphoto.com.au/demo/category/36

The book is not in print but I am in the process of scaning it so as to have a copy.
Click to expand...


Always great to hear about those willing to defy convention and live the life less traveled. A business friend, Brian Calvert, left Seattle several years ago to do just that....he's taken his 48' Selene from the Pacific Northwest to California, then on to Mazatlan, and across the Pacific to French Polynesia. He's been as far south as Sydney, and as far north as Thailand.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q...052934,-161.015625&spn=110.007658,270&t=h&z=2

Map: As of July 2011, the next leg of the...

Home: Furthur Adventure FURTHUR ADVENTURE...

We plan to do some long range cruising aboard Pau Hana in the coming years, and seeing that a Nordhavn is not required only adds to our excitement!
 
Who says he didn't just get there following airplane trails? Have you ever used a sextant?
 
Peter,
I saw Brian in Mooloolaba when he was here last year.
He was tied up at the finger accross from me before he headed north.
Cheers
Benn
 
Keith said:
Who says he didn't just get there following airplane trails? Have you ever used a sextant?
Click to expand...

It's one thing to be a nay-sayer before the fact, but afterwards?!!?

I'd guess he used every nuance available to find those small scattering of dots in the Pacific, sextant and 'sky scars' (as I call them) included.
 
MurrayM said:
It's one thing to be a nay-sayer before the fact, but afterwards?!!?

I'd guess he used every nuance available to find those small scattering of dots in the Pacific, sextant and 'sky scars' (as I call them) included.
Click to expand...

Again, have you ever used a sextant? This is a yes or no question.
 
Keith said:
Again, have you ever used a sextant? This is a yes or no question.
Click to expand...

No, but what has that got to do with your level of proficiency, or Ed Gillette's skill which you seem to be disputing?
 
Because if you had, you'd understand my statement. You argue from a point of no knowledge or experience. I'm done. Those of you who DO have experience with sextants will know what I mean.
 
Not that any of that has anything to do with taking a motor boat around the world.
I wouldn't be trusting any sights I took with a sextant from a kayak, I think I would be just using the stars and jet trails and compass.
Cheers
Benn
 
Keith said:
You argue from a point of no knowledge or experience.
Click to expand...

Well, that there's the problem because I wasn't looking for an argument, just giving a link to an article about "Long Distance Cruising" in a small boat. If you're looking for an argument, give Ed a call :)
 
Keith said:
Because if you had, you'd understand my statement. You argue from a point of no knowledge or experience. I'm done. Those of you who DO have experience with sextants will know what I mean.
Click to expand...

I know how hard it was to get a sight from the deck of a rolling 35' sailboat mid pacific... It would be next to impossible to get a reliable sight in a kayak.
HOLLYWOOD
 
I know, I know. You just can't do what you know can't be done, like climb Everest solo without supplemental oxygen (Reinhold Messner did it first) or lead every pitch of The Nose on El Capitan clean (Lynn Hill did it...twice...once under 24 hours) either.

The original post was pretty cool; how people with open minds and an adventurous spirit can accomplish what the rest of us either can't envision, or don't have the guts to do. I thought Gillette's story followed that path as well.
 
That is an amazing story Murray - thanks for bringing it to the fore. Great clip - it really gives life to Ed's accomplishment.
 
Keith said:
Because if you had, you'd understand my statement. You argue from a point of no knowledge or experience. I'm done. Those of you who DO have experience with sextants will know what I mean.
Click to expand...

Keith, sun sights would be out but star sights - perhaps. I always found them more forgiving and when it was rough took four lines and usually felt comfortable about my position. But I see your point. That said I can't imagine depending on contrails but I guess it foils be done. Either way quite an achievement.
 
There is an article in the latest PassageMaker mag re the round the world cruise by the Heneys on Argos of Sydney.
Beautiful boat and a great adventure.
Whoever wrote it stated that they were the first Australians to circumnavigate the world in a powerboat.
Anyhow I wrote to the assistant editor of PassageMaker with a copy of the front and back pages of Jim and Nancy Murphy's little booklet of their adventure in 1988.
They have agreed to publish my letter with the facts in the next edition.

Not to take anything away from the Heaneys but Jim and Nancy went before any decent GPS / plotters etc were in regular use. I had my first plotter in 1994 and we were only trialing them then.
 
Tidahapah said:
There is an article in the latest PassageMaker mag re the round the world cruise by the Heneys on Argos of Sydney.
Beautiful boat and a great adventure.
Whoever wrote it stated that they were the first Australians to circumnavigate the world in a powerboat.
Anyhow I wrote to the assistant editor of PassageMaker with a copy of the front and back pages of Jim and Nancy Murphy's little booklet of their adventure in 1988.
They have agreed to publish my letter with the facts in the next edition.

Not to take anything away from the Heaneys but Jim and Nancy went before any decent GPS / plotters etc were in regular use. I had my first plotter in 1994 and we were only trialing them then.
Click to expand...

The only real difference between now and 1994 is the plotter...everybody we knew had gps when we sailed the pacific 1992-1994..but the positions had to be transferred to paper charts. I don't think anyone I know would do a circumnavigation today without still keeping a backup an paper while doing bluewater cruising. I still keep a running plot on paper even when I do coastal deliveries. Now it the first folks had done their circumnavigation prior to gps that would be a touch more impressive.
The reality is that it is still the same big oceans one has to cross and anyone that circumnavigates deserves major bragging rights if it is done on anything less than 80'
Hollywood
 
Hello Hollywood

That's correct. I have nav system plus back up with all bells and whistles, still, I put all dots on paper to be sure. Out there, where we cannot see the shoreline, I even use a sextant.

Better safe than sorry!
 
Hollywood as you can see I was talking 1988 not 94.
Our GPS systems at that period were very slow and not very accurate.
I know we were only getting a fix every 4/ 5 hrs in those days and once you got close to the equator or up around Indo it was only a couple of times a day.
Paper charts are really on their way out in the commercial world these days.
I keep them and may be plot a position a couple of times of a night time when I am doing a few days at a time but as like our ships I have back up systems with alternative power supplies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
cruising in Mexico
Replies
4
Views
548
Davil1
D
C
New to Great Lakes Cruising and in Need of Guidance
Replies
20
Views
2K
Cartouche
Cartouche
S
insuring a trawler cruising trawler
Replies
18
Views
2K
Capt Ray
C
hrifraf
Thoughts on cruising Portland Canal?
Replies
0
Views
294
hrifraf
hrifraf
V
Open for suggestions from experienced sailors
Replies
29
Views
3K
Capt Dan
Capt Dan

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom