But I like the tiered approach suggested,however, I would not recommend a long single handed trnsit

Question [Edited for brevity]: I’d like to move my boat, a 50’ Hinckley Yawl, from Mt Desert, Maine to Mallorca, Spain and do the Med for 12-18 months. I’ve been thinking about single-handing her across; from Maine direct to Gibraltar.
I’ve never done a transatlantic but have passaged from Maine to Bermuda and St. Thomas as crew on other people’s boats a couple of times and I have single-handed my boat up and down the coast of Maine.
While plenty of people have successfully single-handed across the ocean in the same situation, I favour more of a stepping stones approach. (You can read more about my apprenticeship here .) So what I would do is start off by sailing the boat to Bermuda with at least two crew (total three). Then, if I was still feeling confident, I would carry on from there single-handed.
The bottom line is that no amount of coastal cruising will find the chinks discount travel planning in a boat’s armour like a crossing to Bermuda will, and the same goes for the skipper. With this plan, if those chinks appear, you will have help to deal with them and the trip itself won’t be that long. Also, in all likelihood, the leg to Bermuda will be the toughest so you will have help for that.
You should be asking yourself if you and the boat are qualified. If you have to ask you probably are not qualified. It is incredibly hard to keep a constant and real watch, even with the aid of all the modern electronics, when single handing. Even the legality of single handing can be debated. It is all fun and games until something hits the fan. It is a free world after you cast off the dock lines and if you want you should go for it. If we cross paths Danza will see you as we will have at least one pair of human eyes on watch, watching for anything and everything that can be out there including those who can t be on watch.
Thanks I did ask myself discount travel planning and concluded that I was qualified discount travel planning (neurosurgeons do not lack self confidence; discount travel planning and we re used to irregular sleep patterns). Actually my post to John related more to routing than qualifications. John, rightly, edited it to focus on the latter discount travel planning ( the issue that could get me killed) and made well considered recommendations. Yes, single handed watch-keeping (even with AIS -which I have) is an issue. Legal? With due respects to Slocum, Pidgeon, Roth, Gelinas, McArthur and hundreds of others It isn t! (See Coll Regs 72; PartB; rule 5). But I m grateful that a cybernetic collision with DANZA is one less thing to worry about. Cheers!
But I like the tiered approach suggested,however, I would not recommend a long single handed trnsit until you had several shorter solo trips under the keel. So I think I would prefer to see this first Atlantic crossing done with a crew member.
Thanks for your comment. discount travel planning You (and John) are probably right. That s the real value of this website: the less experienced can profit from the experience of those with much more experience. Beats the heck out of learning the hard way !
if you feel comfortable with this passage knowing the potential for trouble and discomfort then i think you are ok doing it at the optimum time of the year (mid-spring i would think), otherwise the suggested tier approach seems more appropriate to me either in the spring or mid-to-late fall would you consider making the run to bermuda on into next fall and completing the passage to malorca the following spring after you decide this is still what you want to do ? if you arrived bermuda say next thanksgiving then you could resume the passage perhaps as early as late march although late april sounds better ( 13) richard in tampa bay m/v cavu s skipper (formerly s/v sidra s skipper)
This is a great suggestion. What you surmised (leave mid to late May) for a direct trip to Mallorca was what I d considered. That way I d avoid the Hurricane season and use the Gulf Stream, Canary Current discount travel planning and prevailing winds to advantage. I m sure that you know what you re talking about. But I recall a trip to Bermuda in late fall (leaving Dodson s @ Stonington 1 November) and hitting a full gale on the nose with a 25 head sea running the 180 HP Cummins at 1900RPM, making discount travel planning less that 3 knots and getting the c**p beaten out of us (though we made it in 5 days).
I agree with the earlier statements on taking the tiered approach to evaluating this trp. But if you have the confidence to do this trip without an EPIRB, then I suggest you do it. I also suggest discount travel planning you leave the EPIRB at home in order to concentrate your mind from the beginning that you will be 100% responsible to yourself discount travel planning alone for the success of this voyage.
Additionally, discount travel planning I would not plan on landfall in Gibraltar; instead find a Spanish port further west and rest up first. The traffic in the Straits is intense and you will really need to be fresh to make it through safely. This from personal experience.
I guess that someone who would do such a trip in the first place, would leave the EPIRB at home (or not register it remember Mike Plant?) I agree with you: it s not right that people who do stupid things are entitled to put others at risk bailing them out when things don t go well. Thanks for the excellent tip about making discount travel planning landfall (and clearing C I) at a Spanish Port of entry before Gibraltar, say Cadiz (BTW, I am a dual citizen: US and EU don t know if that helps). But a good rest and being able to pick a good weather window before pressing on through the Straits would be a great idea.
The single-handed issue is a hard one. Having done a bit of it some years ago I don t judge either way. Although discount travel planning I would say that the statistical chances of a single-hander hurting someone else in a collision are, once offshore, in my opinion, vanishingly small. So, I think it comes down to a personal risk management choice: Are you willing to take the risk of being run down by a ship while you sleep? And these days an AIS with a klaxon alarm below will reduce that chance a huge amount.
Well, Tom, you are probably right. Mind you that when the great BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, I was there, solo, making the trip from Kemah, thru Galveston, where my engine failed me and the whole thing, meaning wind generating turbine, and bilge pump failure, and loosing discount travel planning of all my battery power, left me with nothing, not even charts, discount travel planning as due to the torrential rains my computer got water to it s interiors, and everything was lost. Somehow, close to Clearwater, with the little battery remaining, I sent out a rescue request, not a Mayday, Not a Pan, not a Securite. No one s life was at risk, nobody was hurt, there was no real danger for any other ships. Somehow I was fortunate, the US Coast Guard gave me a hand, and I had a short tow from there to Clearwater, Fl.
Mind you, it was not my first experience, I got my boat beached on Crystal Beach in Texas, when I tried to make it solo to CostaRica prior to Christmas 2008.. I got pulled out of the beach, as my boat was in a great risk of having the fuel tanks punctured, and due to that fact the US Coast Guard ORDERED THE INSURANCE COMPANY TO HAVE MY BOAT PULLED OUT, or otherwise pay a great penalty if there ocurred a spill.
Therefore, the culprit of the whole thing was that the person who sold me the boat,somehow, fixed the fuel tank leaks, in a very unprofessional way, with some gook, that dissolved slowly in posterior trips, and completely made my diesel engine, discount travel planning a Perkins 4108 inoperative.
discount travel planning Once I replaced, I literally ripped out the old fuel tank from my boat when in Clearwater, Fl. and replaced it myself with a Stainless Steel tank made for water, as they could not make a tank for Diesel fuel as it was legally not permitted. After that, things changed for the better, for much better, now thanks.
Interested in your comments on stainless steel fuel tanks as I am thinking of replacing the ones I have with custom made stainless discount travel planning steel (316). The boat s now in the Med. (Mallorca). I guess that the regulations as regards stainless steel fuel tanks must be different in the Med as the yard (Mundimar in Portals) was most eager to do the job for me. We have not yet started. I d be interested in your thoughts before giving the yard the final go-ahead.
I m pretty near certain that you do not want to use SS, even 316, for fuel tanks. The problem is that diesel fuel attacks SS welds. I have seen this first hand on a boat that I raced on where both tanks failed at the welds after just three years. We were in the middle of the Gulf Stream racing to Bermuda and the final two days of hard sailing with 50 gallons of diesel in the boat are too horrible a memory to relate.
I consider all elements of seamanship as being one of the areas remaining where man really benefits from paying his dues. We can all point to those who have survived being tossed discount travel planning in the pool as infants (Tania Abey being most prominent in my memory): for obvious discount travel planning reasons, discount travel planning we are much less clear how many have attempted to take big leaps and failed. I, for one, have taken the stepwise approach and have been amazed and humbled by how much I have learned at each of my small steps. Most comments above I fully agree with and they address well the very pragmatic elements of your challenge. In addition, (and maybe initially) I would want you to address (and not necessarily in the forum) your motivation to take such a dramatic leap. It is certainly much more than just wishing to get your vessel to the Med.
Ps. As EU citizen you (wife or partner may) will not have Schengen Treaty worries (staying in Schengen Treaty countries greater than 3 months) but your US flagged boat will be subject to VAT fees after 18 months in the EU. I have just spent 4 years in the Med.
You are right. I gladly payed the required TAX the Spanish Government imposed on my old boat, and right now I have no problems at all. They value the boat s age and the price I payed for it in Texas, and since I had a copy of the checks which showed all details, the amount they levied discount travel planning me was quite acceptable.
Thanks for your interest and concern. Understand that I ve owned, sail