Adventure The Challenge Of The Atlantic

Erin Carey and her family are tested by gear failure during their 17-day crossing from St Maarten to the Azores.

- Erin Carey

We needed to get into Horta in the Azores as soon as possible. The message on our Garmin InReach read: ‘There’s a low forming north of you, and if you don’t get in by Sunday morning, you could experience gale-force winds of 50-60 knots.’ We were 300 miles from Faial and had less than 48 hours before the low was predicted to arrive. From our calculations, we’d have to make at least 6.5-7 knots the entire way to make it on time. Crossing the Atlantic from west to east is considered a testing route, especially as the weather can be varied. It proved challenging for us, with gear problems including a jammed headsail, which we had to cut away, and a failed generator, which saw us enforce water rationing – none of which was easy when sailing with three children under the age of 11. When my husband, Dave and I started planning our sailing adventure from our home in Adelaide, Australia four years ago, we knew we wanted to cross an ocean. That dream led us to choose our Moody 47, Roam, which we bought, sight unseen, in Grenada, despite having no real sailing experience. Known for its blue-water capabilities, with a partial skeg-hung rudder, solid fibreglass construction, centre cockpit and a stout rig, she was more than capable of making the crossing. We were also more than prepared, having now cruised thousands of miles along the Caribbean chain over the last 18 months.

PREPARING FOR OUR CROSSING

When planning our route we looked to Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising Routes, and the pilot charts for the North Atlantic. The Imray Atlantic passage planning