Friday 12/9/2011 8:50am
Voyage to the Mystic Jungles of Guyana Reid, Soayna, Darshen and 5 crew sail to Guyana jungle coast for river exploration and boat rebuilding.

Reid and crew sailed from their dock in Long Island City on the East River on Monday morning, only to be fog bound and unable to leave New York Harbor that day, spending the night tied up to the Ikea Pier near Red Hook Park.  They exited NY harbor Tuesday morning.  A satellite call Tuesday and another one on Wednesday and SPOT positions showed them heading SE, directly into the path of a substantial storm with no further contact until Friday morning, when we received a positive SPOT satellite message confirming location and that they are alright.

Latitude:38.85649
Longitude:-70.65897
GPS location Date/Time:12/09/2011 07:51:06 EST
Message:All is well on Schooner Anne.

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/6cuzZ/38.85649N/70.65897W

Carly Tyrens (24) from Brooklyn, NY is an artist/curator. “Not only is this a chance to experience a life changing adventure, but I also see this as an opportunity to grow personally and artistically.”

Alex Sanford (24) from Knocksville, Tennessee worked as a landscaper and a metal worker until a friend told him about this trip. “I love sailing but there aren’t many chances to get on a boat in Tennessee.”

Josh Grimm (21) from Pennsylvania worked at a small landscape business and is an avid flyfisherman. “I never heard of Guyana and so my interest was immediately sparked. To go on a trip like this is an opportunity that you can almost NOT pass up.”

Andy Cronin (28) from Kentucky works as a structural engineer in NYC. “I wanted to gain sailing experience and go on an adventure.”

Dustin Porta (26) from Pennsylvania is a vintner who has done some coastal sailing. He wants to “experience the big ocean and have moments of extended meditation while at sea.”

Rachel Jameison (26) grew up surfing in Ocean City, NJ but has never sailed on the ocean before. After a short run in the Air Force where she hoped to experience some adventure, but was given a desk job, she expects this voyage will “be a special chance to put down the adventure magazines and pick up my dreams of far away places.”

One of our crew members, Andy, is a professionally trained diver. Andy was happy to jump into the river and clean our underwater window which had clouded over with growth just from being docked on the river over the past year. While Andy swam down to find the window in the murky water, Rachel prepped lunch and hollered the location of various tools to the crew. Soanya waited by the underwater window to get the perfect shot. Carly got ready to hit “record” on the video camera and the rest of the crew was busy with rigging details on deck while keeping an eye and ear out for Andy. When Andy finally appeared in the window preceded by the light of his waterproof flashlight, the crew below got excited and little Darshen wiggled in front of everyone to take pictures with his pretend camera. Now the window is clean and ready to allow the sparkling blue light of the ocean into the interior of the schooner.

The schooner Anne was involved in a collision with a freighter on day 15 of the 1000 day voyage. The bowsprit was bent back and had to be sawed off. We spent a month drifting while Reid made major creative repairs to the boat. The rest of that epic voyage was done with a disabled boat. Finally, after returning from the sea for over a year, we were able to get the materials and the expertise to construct a new bowsprit and bow pulpit. It was an exciting moment when the whole crew worked together to mount the new bowsprit, bolt the fittings on, and put the pulpit over it. We used the main gaff and a system of pulleys and ropes as a crane to hoist the metal structures into place. The next step was to attach the two head stays to the bowsprit. The bowsprit holds the head sails forward and allows the schooner a greater ability to sail into the wind.

In the midst of getting the bowsprit on but before the bow pulpit was put into place, we set up our digital video camera on a tripod and placed the tripod on a table on the shore to record the event. Suddenly a gust of wind blew the tripod with the camera still attached over the shore rail and into the river! Two of our crew endeavored to fish the camera and tripod out while the rest of the crew set the pulpit into place. We rinsed the camera with fresh water, dried it and stuck it in a bag of rice. Who knows if it will ever work again. Thankfully, we had a spare which is now our only video camera onboard. We missed recording the bow pulpit going on but the finished product is a sight to behold.

Dr. Kracker, the company that contributed some of the tastiest, crunchiest crackers to the 1000 Days voyage, has made another contribution for the Voyage to the Mystic Jungles of Guyana. The crew was excited to taste these famed whole grain crackers as they loaded the 250 boxes into the cargo hold. During the afternoon coffee break, the crackers come out with peanut butter and jelly. All agreed that they were a delicious addition to our daily meal plan. Dr. Krackers will be featured in the book we are writing tentatively titled Survival Food Stocking: A Proven Three Year Technique Without Re-Supply. Then it was back to work re-rigging, welding, hammering, drilling, and painting.

Reid and crew went to the sail loft at City Island, NY to re-cut the sails that were donated to us. Our friend Sequoia, who graciously gave us a good portion of the equipment from his former 90 ft sailboat, also gave us his sails which needed to be customized to fit the schooner Anne. Paul the sail maker from Doyle Sails, was kind enough to allow us to use the sail loft with an industrial sewing machine and lend his expertise to the process of designing, cutting, shaping, and sewing the sails. After some initial drawings, measurements, taking into consideration usage (cruising, not racing) and areas of likely wear and chafe the sails were ready to be cut and reworked. Rachel operated the machine while Reid and Alex wrestled the many feet of Dacron material into position.

In one exhausting day, a new foresail and staysail was made. Reid was satisfied that we took full advantage of the short time we had at the sail loft. However, we would have to go with our old mainsail. The mainsail from the other boat was tall but not wide enough for the Anne and so it became our foresail. We continue our preparations….

By Rachel Jamison

The second crew member to move aboard, Alex Sanford, came ready for heavy duty work and he has not been disappointed. In his flame resistant pants and ipod in tow, he fired up the cutting torch and sparks began to fly.  A few weeks ago as we attempted to put on the graciously donated turnbuckles, we found that 3 years at sea had corroded them to inoperable, immovable, masses of rust. They had to be torched off. We now float with the old rigging dangling from the mast head and the new rigging being prepped for installation.

This week we focused on freeing the old bowsprit, and retiring her to scrap metal. The jury rigged reminder of day 15 of the 1000 Days voyage when a collision with a freighter severely damaged our bowsprit is finally being laid to rest. The little stub is being replaced with a new proud bowsprit and bow pulpit before we leave for Guyana. Alex's welding skills are being put to good use as the schooner Anne gets ready to sail again.

Replacing the old shackle with the new.

Soanya's View:

We haven't set an exact date on when we're leaving for our Voyage to the Mystic Jungles of Guyana, but it's roughly one month away. The energy onboard is stepping up woven with excitement, anticipation, preparations, hard work, and lots of people coming and going. We just got our charts for Guyana and are planning ways to navigate into the biggest jungle river in the country, the Essequibo river. Reid and I are getting items we won't be using in the next six months off the boat. That means most of the winter clothes we would have worn had we stayed in New York, stacks of art work, some of the special sculptures, toys Darshen is no longer playing with, old notebooks, 1000 Days promo materials, foul weather gear suitable for Antarctica, etc. We're tweaking our electrical systems, and getting our satellite iridium telephone working again. We're looking at our food lists and getting our staples for the next months.

The crew is looking into immunizations where applicable, mosquito netting, bug repellents, and rain gear. They are also slowly moving onboard one by one. We tell them the sooner the better because it takes time to get use to living on a boat. There are always things you think you need that you really don't and things you wish you had and realize would be good to get before leaving. It it an ongoing process as we discover what we can and can not live without.

We have some major boat work planned before departure including replacing the rigging, replacing the bowsprit, and fixing the main gaff. All the work will be done on the dock with Reid overseeing it every step of the way. Soon, the schooner will be ready for her next adventure.