Atlantic Crossing - Ellen Cahill

 My brother Conor and I had set our sights on the task of crossing the Atlantic Ocean; it was something we felt just had to be done. So when Dieter Kruegel asked us to join him on Mistral we couldn't resist! Dad and I had met Dieter 3 years previously in Flensburg, Germany where he showed us his magnificent schooner and since then we kept in contact.  So a little history on the boat itself  MISTRALMistral is a 64' Herreshoff Schooner built in 1938 at Britt Brothers in Saugus, Massachusetts. She was rebuilt and re-launched by the skilled boat builders in a historical boat-shed at Arnis an der Schlei on May 22, 2008. LOA: 82 feetBeam: 15 feetDraft: 6'3Hull: Pitch pine on oak frames sheathed with 3 layers of sipo mahogany. Sail Area: 195.2 metersNew Interior: CherrySpar Material: SpruceNumber of Berths: 8Rig: Hermaphrodite Schooner Rig (Marconi Main, Gaff Fore)Theodore S. Little commissioned Mistral to be built in 1938 from the plans of L. Francis Herreshoff, son of the "Wizard of Bristol" Nathaniel Herreshoff, at Britt Brother’s boatyard. As hull number 73 she was the last of the 63'6" schooners built in typical Herreshoff tradition as a large, fleet-footed and swift vessel for American coastal waters. During the war, Mistral with her silent propulsion was deployed to the submarine patrol of the US Coastguard, and years later wrote US Naval history when she was the first American Navy sail training ship to be sailed across the Atlantic under the command of a woman. So where did Louis Mulloy come in? Well one week before we left Ireland we got news that one crew member could not make the voyage. That day I casually asked at work (MSC sailing course) if anyone cared to cross the Atlantic and typical Louis style he jumped at the opportunity! The next morning he left for work with his passport telling his mother "by the way I’m crossing the Atlantic in a week…need to borrow some money, will talk later"! So on Thursday the 7th of August there was a mad panic finishing paper work for our respective students (yes you my levels 4s who kindly threw me into the water!). We packed out bags and were up at 4am the next morning to head for Shannon. On Friday 7th of August we set off from Shannon where we flew to Halifax through Newark and in typical student style stayed the night in the Airport in Halifax!! One concern we had as we had to transit through the USA was that, as we had one way flights only , that Homeland Security/Immigration might be concerned that we would be a financial burden on the USA as we looked very unlike the average visitor on a tourist visa (we weren't that scruffy - just Conor and Louis!!) Dieter had arranged to pick us up in the Airport at 8am but as we quickly leant that meant 7.45! Just a little prelude of his Germany ways! Jet lagged and laden down with luggage, including a sextant which was fun to bring through airport scanners, we were driven to Chester. Chester is a fabulous little town on the beautiful coast of Nova Scotia. The population is made up of mainly Americans who vacation there. In Chester we raced in bare feet, shorts and t-shirts against 17 other wooden schooners and with the luck of the Irish came 1st! It was a most amazing race that none of us will ever forget. I started to think why I ever put myself through the rough wet weather sailing that we have all grown so used to! We left Chester early the next morning for Lunenburg, a town about 4 hours away. Mistral spent two years in a workshop in Lunenburg in 1998 so Dieter had many friends in the town who loved to see her return. On our short trip there we saw our first sights of wildlife as two pilot whales along with some dolphins followed along side us. On August the 10th we all woke thinking "today's the day"! We expected to be in Ireland in about 14 days, back in time for my Deb's, alas I didn't make it.  We packed up the boat with supplies to last us 3 weeks and left the harbor after MOB drills at 4pm. We left with the scary realization of how hard it would be to pick someone up with a bit of wind and swell. Shortly after leaving we hit fog which stayed with us for the night. We got straight into our watch system which consisted of two watches, I, Louis, Dieter and Alfredo made up watch 1 while Conor, Lea, Chloe and Thomas made up watch 2. There were two daytime watches, the 1st one starting at 7am-1pm and 1pm-7pm and three night watches, 7pm-11pm, 11pm-3am, and 3am-7am. We had breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 7pm which was prepared by the people on watch so off watch you could sleep. During the watches you helmed for 30 minutes at a time. The watch system worked really well, the night watches were tough at the start requiring great efforts to keep our eyes open but we got into the swing of it quickly. Once the coast line of Nova Scotia disappeared we were headed for Sable Island. We motored for over 30 hours with 3 meters of swell which made it uncomfortable for everyone but we soon caught wind and were cruising along nicely at 10 knots with the 2nd reef in the mainsail. It was nice to finally be at the wheel with sails up and start to make real progress. We spotted an oil rig to the north near Sable, one of the strangest sights ever really, as Louis described it; it looked like a city from a computer game!! On August 13th we entered the Gulf Stream according to the current charts and we sure noticed it on board. The sea temperature was 25' with 28' air temperature which made it hard to sleep in the sticky climate below deck. Above deck the wind was great! Dieter pondered whether we should put a 3rd reef in the main after the fore outhaul broke but we repaired it quickly and convinced him that the sailing was just too good. Louis and myself were emailed our Leaving Cert results and we were both delighted with them, it was a little surreal to be in the middle of the ocean receiving our results for such an important exam…….they didn't really mean a lot to us, it was strange! It was the 14th when the engine started to give trouble. The wind had died on us again requiring us to turn on the engine and just after it picked up again an o ring in the impeller burnt out. It wasn't the end of the world but was the start of a long string of problems. Dieter set to work on fixing it and there he stayed for the next two weeks! That night I just knew that something else was going to go wrong after a flying fish flew into my back and woke me up from a lovely sleep during my watch (strange experience!), we had more engine problems and the following day it was decided that we would head to the Azores to get replacement engine parts as it was much closer than Ireland. It was not until the 17th when we got the latest weather report that we decided to head straight for Ireland. We all got excited as the wind picked up so we threw up the ginny and surfed the big waves getting a max speed of 11.7 knots, seemed amazing then but better was to come! August 18th was a down day as Louis' diary entry "good start to the day but deteriorated into hell. Engine which was momentarily fixed is now completely dead. We are now officially not using electricity, no GPS no nav lights no running water". From this part of the trip onwards we had no choice but to conserve every bit of power we had left. Hot meals were restricted to 1 a day and running water was not allowed. At night time we put an oil lamp up on the fisherman halyard on the foremast so we could be seen by cargo ships but luckily we were out of the main shipping channel by that stage. The fair weather had passed and we headed into colder wetter windier weather, much like Ireland really! We started to get used to 50+ knots of wind and 4 meter waves but didn't quite realise that a 5 second flog could rip a jib. The roller reefed jib is the fore most sail so to get to it you must head out on the 4 meter bow sprit, sounds like fun but not in 50+ winds and an enormous swell. So it was all hands on deck and Louis and Chloe went on the bow sprit to take the sail down, it took about 30 minuets to get it down fully with Chloe's lifejacket having inflated and by the end of the ordeal we were all completely wrecked and soaked to the skin. Drying ourselves now became our new goal, one which we all failed to do most of the time! On the morning of the 25th hurricane Bill entered the equation. I took a peek out of the companionway and my pajamas were soaked straight away! Wind was hitting 70+ knots, the cockpit was continuously being filled from waves crashing on us and spray from 20 meters away hit our faces like pellets. I think it was my record time for getting changed and on deck!! Being at the helm was amazing, constantly fighting to keep the waves behind you and surfing them on the 45 ton classic.  We felt the need to turn the speedo on…..just in case we hit a high…which we did, we make a Mistral record that day, Louis hit 16.6 knots surfing the biggest wave…..EVER! The final days of the journey were tough but exciting, the wind stayed up but we stayed wet. It's so hard to get out of your damp bunk into wet clothes after just a few hours of sleep. But being on deck was exhilarating. We were being washed around the cockpit and thrown off our seats by waves (thank God for the life lines!) and I was seriously getting tired fighting weather helm with reefs in at times, but the wind was steady so really there was nothing to complain about. As Ireland grew closer we got onto proper charts rather then just plotting charts so you could really see how close we were.  On the 28th we reached Clare Island in darkness. We reached up and down the coast for a few hours so we could arrive in in day light. The wait was tough as we were so close to home and sleeping just wasn't happening for me! Conor and Louis slept like logs and were in high spirits as we passed our beautiful mountain. It was so great to be met by Ocean Potion, Triona, Ricjack and The Lady Helen at 7am escorting us to a mooring in Inishlyre harbor. We were given some cans of beer to start breakfast and Irish music was played from Ocean Potion. The whole crew was buoyed up to see people getting up so early to greet us.  I think it was really when we stepped off the boat and were hugged and congratulated that it hit us, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean! Conor has gone back to England to continue his studies in environmental resource management, me and Louis both got our 1st choices - engineering. Louis is doing energy engineering in Galway and I'm doing general engineering in UCD. We are all well settled back at this stage but we still get asked what we did for the summer…..we get some great reactions I can tell you that!  It looks like I wrote it but I really have to give lots of credit to Louis and Conor, thanks you guys! Ellen Cahill    To view photos of the crossing, click on Gallery