Caribbean 1500 Update

The Carib 1500 was only my second organized event. In the mean time I 

had sailed my new 2002 Hunter 46 over 36,000 miles and the even newer 2007 Hunter 49 Around-the-World, so I had learned a few things between these 'events'.

The 2000 Baja HaHa was my first real sail on my 'new-to-me' used 1998 Hunter 34 "WanderLust". I learned sailing from my 2 German friends that offered to mentor me down the coast to Cabo. That was a perfect first organized event for me to participate in. The 'Grand PooBah' has everything loosely organized with his only stipulation, "No Whining!"

 

The two Cruising Rallies have some similarities but they are a completely different ball game.

 

The Baja HaHa is like 2 families getting together for a 4th of July softball game in the park. Some players know what they are doing, most do not and take advise from others. The game is only 3 innings long and you take a lunch break between innings, one at Turtle Bay and the second break at Bahia Maria. The boats never stray more than 50 miles off shore down the Baja Mexican coast. The times are loosely kept but everybody wins the same prize at the end.

 

The Carib 1500 is Major League with teams in uniform, umpires, rules and required equipment. It goes a full 9 innings non-stop offshore for around 1500 miles.

 

The smallest vessel must be over 40 feet long and deemed 'Blue Water' capable. Each is required to have a certified life raft, a Solas type-1 PFD for each crew member, a Solas MOB pole and second throwable devise, 12 or more Solas flares including parachutes, Solas orange smoke canisters and some other things on a long list. I only had a Solas 8 person Viking Rescue-You  life raft so I was required to go to West marine and buy all the rest before completing my inspection.

 

The inspectors are professional surveyors and take their volunteer jobs seriously. If things weren't right they would come back when you made it right. Each vessel must have an SSB radio, EPIRB and carry a satellite positioning transponder that the organizers provide. The inspectors check that all life lines and safety jack lines are installed and everyone has a harness with tether. Over three pages of required equipment. These guys are serious.

 

They have to be. The event leaves a starting line at the exit of the Chesapeake Bay just off of the large US Navy base at Norfolk Virginia and heads SE towards Tortola BVI, a distance of 1280 miles rhumb line but usually 1400-1500 miles depending on your course. It is almost all into the wind.

(On autopilot at 8.5 knots for 4 days) After doing one "Baja Bash" in 2001, I swore I would NEVER sail to wind again. I sailed 28,000 miles around the world last year with the wind never ahead of abeam, usually all down wind. This ride would be all up wind.

 

The start had to be put off 3 days because of Hurricane Paloma that was hitting Cuba with 120 knot winds.

 set a course East and a waypoint 150 miles south of Bermuda. We had 3 days of 15-18 knots on the starboard beam. I and my 2 crew I had met just the day before and were doing 3 hours on watch, 6 off. With position reports every 6 hours over SSB radio we knew that we were in the middle group of 50 boats. The big racing class boats had all taken a more southerly course and seemed to be pulling ahead. I wanted to simply make enough easting into the SE trades before changing tack over to port.

 

At 65 degrees longitude, just 200 miles south of Bermuda, I flopped over to port tack and had a hard beat 40 to 45 degrees to weather. I had third reef down and just the stay sail in the 25-28 knots of SE winds with waves of 8-12 feet spraying and breaking into the bow and port side at about a 20-22 degree heel. And that was the next 4 days non-stop. And this from a guy who promised himself he would NEVER sail to wind again.

 

One of the crew was terribly sick for 12 hours, so my other crew member and I did 2 hours on, two off for a day. Finally we were again three strong and only one more day to the finish line. Exactly 8 days and one hour from the starting line we crossed into Tortola Bay. We were the 7th boat in to port but 4 of them had left early, one boat even a whole day early. 

 

Officially the "Cruising Class" does not get an official time because insurance does not cover a "RACE" but with our 8 day, 1 hour time we were the 5th boat across the line and first 'Cruising Boat". We were also the first boat under 50 feet. More than half the fleet was over 50 feet in length and some of the best names in sailboat racing. 

 

We were behind four race boats at the finish; a full race Santa Cruz 52, a Halberg-Rassy 62, a Halberg-Rassey 49 ketch and a Swan 58. Some of the race class boats that arrived after us were MacGregor 65, Catana 50, Beneteau 57, Jeanneau 57, Farr 50, Tayana 58, Taswell 58 and a Hinkley 51.

 

But behind us were a Hylas 54, 2 Amel 54s, a Tayana 55, a Passport 515, a Jeanneau 54 DS and many others.

 

Most of the sailors in this event were impressed with the new Hunter 49 as being "Very Blue Water" capable.

(My two crew were volunteers at the rally briefing the day before we left. John is from Michigan and owns a Beneteau 510 now in Hampton, VA. Dennis, also from Michigan, owns an Island Packet in Maine. They both wanted more offshore experience.)

Our end score of 193 (8 days-1 hour) was good but we probably used the engine the least amount of ANY boat with a total of 25 hours, never over 1800 rpm and re-filled with 26 gallons. That includes getting to the start line and in from the East End of Tortola finish line. Plus, I waited 15 minutes after the general start because I never made a line-start with other boats and did not want to be in their way. My only goal was to see how my boat compared with others when I sail just as I did around the world; minimum stress on the rig and hull, maximum fuel economy and no stress! I expected to finish in the upper middle of the cruising class and let the racing boats go on ahead.

Mike

s/v Wanderlust 3

"West End" Beaches, Tortola

Cruising Documentaries Just $9.99

Latitude 38 Interview: Part 1

March 2008
Part 1 of 5

Courtesy Latitude 38 Magazine

Mike Harker
As a result of a horrible hang-gliding accident off Grenada decades ago that left him under water and unconscious, Mike Harker spent six years in a bed, all but unable to move, and being assured by doctors that he’d never walk again. Although he’s paralyzed from the top of his “butt bone” down - except for the insides of his thighs - he’s managed, through relentless effort, to resume a normal life. And, to make remarkable passages with his boats.Harker started sailing at 52 by entering the ‘00 Baja Ha-Ha, learning as he went along. The following year he singlehanded across the Atlantic, then sailed back across to Panama and the South Pacific. After returning to California, he had planned a circumnavigation that was, for reasons he’ll explain, delayed for more than a year. His goal, now that he’s 60, is to complete a 26,000-mile trip around the world in 11 months, sailing half the time and enjoying stops in ports the other half.

This interview was conducted in St. Barth when he had 1,000 miles left to go. By the time it was over; and. before this was published, he’d actually covered 27,800 miles in 10 months, three weeks - the greater distance a result of doing an unplanned additional 2,000 miles on the east coast of Australia just for the fun of it.

Harker’s worst scare of the trip? When he mistook some wicked hot sauce for ketchup at Cheeseburgers in Paradise in St. Barth. He was choking so badly and. in such genuine pain that we were seconds from summoning professional medical help before he began to recover. While making his circumnavigation, Harker’s home at Lake Arrowhead burned to the ground. He’ll not rebuild. When he’s through sailing - which isn’t going to be anytime soon, as you’ll soon learn - he’ll move into one of the units in his triplex on the water in Manhattan Beach.

Harker: Let me start off by saying that you’re the first person who speaks ‘American’ that I’ve talked to in over 10 months.

38: Cool. Well, tell us, how did this very rapid and mostly singlehanded circumnavigation come about?

Harker: As some readers might remember, I started sailing by doing the '00 Ha-Ha with a used Hunter 34 WanderLust. At the time, I knew absolutely nothing about sailing. After doing a singlehanded Baja Bash back to Southern California, I bought a new Hunter 466 in Miami. Although I intended to have crew, I ended up singlehanding Wanderlust II across the Atlantic. I then cruised the Med for 8 months, and that winter came back across the Atlantic and ultimately to French Polynesia via the Galapagos. Then, while on the way to Hawaii, the rudder broke. After getting a replacement rudder from Hunter, my plan was to sail back to San Francisco, do the Ha-Ha again, do the Puddle Jump to the South Pacific, then continue on to Australia and around the world.

But the folks at Hunter liked what I was doing. They invited me to their booth at the show in Miami and suggested that I trade my 466 in for one of their new H-49s - which wasn’t even completely designed at that point - and do my circumnavigation with one of those. They made me a hard-to-refuse offer, and had me come to the factory to get my ‘non-sailor’ input on the boat. Having accepted their offer, I had to postpone my circumnavigation for a year in order to sell my 466 and for them to finish designing and building the H-49. Right: New H-49 launch and rigging in St. Augustine Feb 2007

38: We've gotten to know you over the years, so we expect that you put that year of waiting to good use.

Harker: I went to Sea School in Fort Lauderdale to get my Captain’s license, then I went to school in Pensacola to get a Masters upgrade, and finally I went to Orange Coast College’s School of Sailing and Seamanship for my offshore and sailing endorsements. I now have all the certificates. Right: Looking down on 'WanderLust 3' from the new Selden mast

38: Were the classes helpful or did they basically teach you what you already knew?

Harker: There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t know, the classes were helpful. Among the most useful stuff I learned is a lot of sailing and nautical terminology that I wasn’t familiar with. You have to remember that I learned almost all my sailing in the Ha-Ha with German friends, and we only spoke German. And since I’ve singlehanded more than 90% ever since, I haven’t learned the English terms from subsequent crew.

38: So you mostly sail alone?

Harker: The only crew I’ve had for a long distance passage was from the Canaries to the Caribbean with my 466. I don’t think anyone has sailed more than a couple of hundred miles with me on my current boat. I only need crew for coastal waters where there is a lot of local traffic because, with someone else watching, I can safely go to sleep. Right: Sea Trial from Miami to Atlantis Marina in Nassau Bahamas

"I’m a guy who likes to move around,
and I discovered it was possible to
circumnavigate in 11 months."

38: What was the concept behind such a rapid circumnavigation?

Harker: While waiting for my boat to be done, I spent a lot of time planning a circumnavigation. I studied Jimmy Cornell's ‘World Cruising Routes’ for the best times to be in the places I wanted to pass through. The primary determinants of the best times are avoiding hurricane and tropical cyclone seasons. For example, you don’t want to leave Mexico for the South Pacific in the summer or fall, nor do you want to be crossing the Indian Ocean after October of any given year. I know that most cruisers typically take three to five years, but I’m a guy who likes to move along, so I found that the hurricane seasons would also allow me to do a circumnavigation in either 18 months or two years. But after doing some more studying, I realized that I could actually do it in just 11 months. Right: Alone to Matthew Town, Inagua

Cornell’s book was my bible. Not only did I spend a year planning my route with it, but I visited with him at the Annapolis Boat Show. In fact, I had two $5O/hour consultations with him about my route. When I showed my plan to him, he said, “I’ve never seen anyone with a plan like this, but it looks perfect!” Jimmy has been around the world something like 5 times and really knows his stuff. But don’t get him started talking, because he can go on and on. (Laughter.) 38: What were you figuring for an average speed or distance covered in a week? Right: The 'Windward Passage' between Cuba and Haiti

38: What were you figuring for an average speed or distance covered in a week?

Harker: The distance of the circumnavigation was about 26,000 miles, and there are 52 weeks in a year. I wanted to average 1,000 miles a week, so if I sailed at an average of 6.5 knots, I could be sailing half the time and resting or exploring ashore the other half of the time, and still make it around in 11 months. But as it turns out, I did nearly 2,000 more miles on the east coast of Australia for the fun of it.

38: But we all know about the inevitable breakdowns, new boat teething problems, and schedules going all to hell.

Harker: I don’t know what to tell you except that, as I’m here now talking to you, I’ve completed 26,900 miles of what will actually be a 28.000-mile circumnavigation, and that I’m currently just one week behind schedule. Had I wanted to, I could easily have been right on schedule.Right: The Errol Flynn Island in Port Antonio, Jamaica

38: That's pretty remarkable.

Harker: It’s not to say that I didn’t have delays or spend more time than I planned in some places. For example, I ended up spending three weeks in the Galapagos waiting for the people at customs in Quito, Ecuador, to release an alternator that I needed. I’m normally a very patient person, especially on boats, but that was the first time I got really frustrated. As a result, I had to make up three weeks crossing the Pacific. So while I did have delays, there was enough leeway in my schedule that I could make up for it.

WATCH FOR PART II.

Wanderlust3 up on-the-hard for new bottom paint, zincs, and rigging inspection. Selden wanted to inspect the mast after 28,000 miles of sailing in 11 months. This was the first H-49 fitted with Selden's Tall Mast and they wanted
to study the whole rig.

Mike Harker and Wanderlust3