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Originally Posted by camaraderie
Yes ...Sabre26...ask him to tell you how he was declared dead in that crossing! El Grande Cojones!!
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Cam,
I didn’t die during my first trans-Atlantic. In fact the crossing in my 22-foot Sea Sprite went well and for the most part was uneventful. And I am keeping the larger mistakes I made on that trip quiet until after I really die to avoid early death by acute embarrassment.
I was presumed lost on a later trip when I decided to sail through a hurricane on a 30-foot boat instead of just sailing around it. It was imposable to keep that mistake a secret because of the press coverage and book that was written after my rescue. It wasn’t the most interesting trip I have ever taken but it was the most memorable.
Bob Manry sailed trans-Atlantic in a 13 foot Oldtown lapstrake centerboard boat that didn’t even have a cabin when he started to prepare for his trip. His accomplishment was much more spectacular then mine for several reasons. The Tinkerbell trip was his first time sailing in the ocean and by 1974 when I did my trip I was already experienced in sailing offshore. When I was a teenager I soloed my first Sea Sprit to Canada from RI. And my second Sea Sprite was built custom just for the Atlantic crossing. The only real disagreement between anybody involved in my trip was about the windvane steering system. I didn’t use one at the time and the Sea Sprite could sail herself by trimming the sails and balancing the boat. It turned out that by not taking the advice to use a windvane system the boat saved my life be becoming unbalanced after I fell off midway and she back-winded the genoa and turned around and run over me as I was floundering around in the water. Falling off my own boat without having a lifeline is just one of the mistakes I was trying to keep quiet at the time.
I read Tinkerbell when I was a kid and that’s one of the things that made me want to do the trip. I was really pleased to see that I signed the official guest book in Falmouth only a few pages from Bob Manry’s signature. It was a nice landfall and it was covered at the time by TV and a bit of press. I even got an invitation to meet the Queen. I was the youngest one to do the crossing at that point so the trip got some interest. I believe a thirteen year old now has the record.
And yes Sabre I do have lots of stories from lots of trips.
All the best,
Robert Gainer
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