Barrabas safely back into the water

by Adrian Flanagan on 10 Jul 2007 The Alpha Global Expedition is one man’s quest to achieve a vertical circumnavigation. This had never been attempted before. Previously all attempts to circumnavigate by sea from the voyage of Magellan and Drake have been horizontal West to East or East to West voyages. It is only in recent times that Slocum, Chichester, and Knox-Johnston have attempted single-handed voyages of horizontal circumnavigation in yachts. Very recently, horizontal circumnavigation has become almost commonplace with several very expensive racing yachts battling round against each other. Adrian Flanagan started out from the United Kingdom in October 2005, rounded Cape Horn into the Pacific and headed North to the Bering Strait, prior to attempting the first non-stop single-handed voyage through the Russian Northern Sea Route to the Norwegian Sea and home to Britain.

Latest from Adrian as he continues with preparations for his trip.

Sailing - or preparing to sail is like a treadmill, round and round you go. When one list of jobs is complete, another has meantime been created. I started with one list with 16 items, I am now on list 6 with more than 100 items needing some kind of attention. An example - I went to check the windlass - for those not familiar with nautical terms, a windlass is a mechanism used for lowering and raising the anchor. I will be in shallow waters, close inshore along much of the Northern Sea Route. There will be occasions when I will have to anchor to sleep. So back to the check.

Raising the anchor was fine, but the lowering function was not operating.

So, two hours were spent taking the windlass apart to find and fix the problem. Mission successful - but it was two hours I had not scheduled. A famous mountaineer once said that if you waited until everything was ready in preparation for an expedition of any scale, you would never leave.

Here’s another problem. I cannot find my flares. Nor can anyone else. Amidst all the frenetic activity of preparing the boat to winter over in Alaska, the flares have been put somewhere by someone but no one can recall by whom or where. So it goes on. All of which has the negative effect of promulgating the ‘getting ready’, but on the upside keeps me busy and detracts from the tempting and dangerous preoccupation of worry about the prospect ahead.

I have set a departure date for Sunday 15th July which is the deadline I set back in September last year when forward planning for the Arctic Phase - subject always of course to the weather. Barrabas will be carrying 6,000 lbs of fuel and water. She will be low in the water and relatively less stable. I don’t want a big trial in the shallow waters of the Bering Sea at the outset.

Cogniscent of the fact that I won’t be sitting down to a home cooked meal for a while to come, Cam and his wife, Malinda have had me over to their house a couple of times to feed me - steak, pasta, salads, puddings, beer.
I’ve eaten enough at those sittings to see me through to my next birthday!

From Nome, Alaska Adrian's email of July 10th:

Barrabas is now safely in the water. It’s been an eventful few days. Just prior to launch, Cam Kristensen, one of the Crowley marine mechanics but an artist by training, temperament and inclination ‘tattooed’ Barrabas on her starboard and port quarters with an image of a pal-ai-yuk, a mythical creature from Inuit tradition, half serpent, half crocodile that will ward off sea creatures intent on doing Barrabas harm.

Later that afternoon, Rick left for Anchorage to be with his wife who underwent major back surgery on Monday. It was a difficult farewell - Rick has been unstinting in his support for me and the expedition. Without him, this Alaskan hiatus would have been much more difficult.

There was one heart-in-the-mouth moment as I went to try the engine for the first time having spent hours working on it, replenishing fluids, cleaning, aligning and disassembling and reassembling various components. I turned the key. Nothing happened. My pre-start checks were rusty. The engine battery was not switched on. I tried again. She refused at the first fence. My pulse accelerated dramatically. Perhaps nine months in the Arctic freezer had precipitated some impossible-to-find problem. I tried again and the engine purred to life. Actually, cranked and rattled to life would be more accurate but it was a purr to me. This is a heavy duty Lombardini diesel - so more London Taxi than BMW rich boy smooth toy.

My routine of work, work, worry, work, more worry and on and on was interrupted (pleasantly) on Sunday when a tapping at the bow caught my attention. Up on the harbour wall were a couple of guys. Some part of my cognitive process recognized something distinctly non-American about them. It turned out they were French - Sebastian and Eric, who had just sailed in on a small, Kevlar catamaran - 'Babouche' - so called because its shape is reminiscent of a Moroccan slipper. The boat’s odd appearance is by design.

It is supposed to be able to meet low pack ice at speed, climb up onto the ice and continue sailing on top of the pack. They are going to try the North West Passage. If you thought (or indeed think) I was crazy, these guys - all lantern-jawed, tousled-haired, broken-nosed Gallic confidence - have no engine, no radar (neither have I at the moment until I figure out how my new one works) and only two handheld GPS units for navigation.

Over a ‘Vietnamese’ coffee at the Nugget Inn this morning, we all agreed to meet up at the Paris Boat show in December.

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