9 minute read
big oceans, tiny boat
NICK JAFFE
Tell someone that you're planning to cross an ocean in a 26-ft boat you've never seen, much less sailed, and they're researched the cost off, Jaffe left Berlikely to gently suggest that you're off of boats Down Under, lin, moved onto your rocker. Tell them the same thing he quickly scrapped the boat — which over the internet and 'gentle' goes out the idea as unattain- was on the hard the window. The perceived anonymity able. — and got a job of the internet gives naysayers the con- Instead, he moved at a local pub. fidence to not only say what they want, to Germany to pur- "Every paycheck but also how they sue a master's degree went straight to want. And sadly, in fine arts. But that the chandlery," he it's often cruel. wasn't far enough to laughed. It took "I'm scared escape the dream of a couple more of some of the sailing somewhere far months of hard sailing bulletin away. "I quit school work to get the boat boards," says and went hitchhik- ready to launch, Nick Jaffe, who ing," he recalled. "I after which, Jaffe has singlehanded ended up in Norway, could be found on his Contessa 26 inside the Arctic the water every Constellation Circle, sleeping on day, whether on from Europe to the side of the road. his boat or crewing New York, and left I remember think- for others. the Bay Area last ing that it would be When ConstelNick Jaffe. month bound for amazing to see the lation was finally Hawaii. "Some of those guys are mean Lofoten Islands by ready for a shakebuggers. I can just imagine, if something boat." down cruise, a happened to me, that they'd start a Back in Berlin, thread on all the things I did wrong." Jaffe read every sail But for all the negative comments ing book, researched Jaffe has received over the internet every boat, and fi— very few, for the record — the posi- nally settled on a tive experiences he's had, thanks to his 1972 Contessa 26 he website www.BigOceans.com, outweigh found in Southampton, U.K. "I them 100-to-1. "When someone gives me bought it in June '06, sight unstick, I immediately want to take down seen — I can never do anything my site," he chuckled when we spoke by halves," he admitted. By Euto him before his departure. "But then ropean standards, the $10,000 I think about all price tag the great things for the that have come bareout of having it." b ones Jaffe, a 28- Constelyear-old Aus- lation was tralian software quite a developer and art- deal. But ist, has gained a to get the worldwide follow- boat at ing thanks to his that price, site. On it, he's Jaffe chronicled every agreed to step of his quest pay off the to sail from Eu- This small pile of provisions is all that remained boat in six rope to Australia. after 'Constellation's 30-day Atlantic crossing. months Through it, he's made friends before — if he missed a single payever meeting them. To say his website ment, he'd lose the boat and is integral to his success so far is an every penny invested in her. understatement. "When I wasn't working, I was studying," he said. Indeed, in six
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Tmonths, he worked through the hough he was born and raised materials for several licensing in the coastal city of Melbourne, Jaffe courses, including the notoristarted sailing only about four years ously tough Yachtmaster certiago by crewing on race boats. "I hated fication. "I just couldn't afford going around the buoys," he said. "I just to take the test." wanted to go somewhere." But once he With the boat finally paid
Sticker shock — Sponsor stickers on 'Constellation' imply a big budget. Not so, says Nick. "One sticker represents $1,000 — now long gone — another two solar panels, and so on. Brewer's is a 'big' sticker!"
BIG OCEANS, TINY BOAT
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY WWW.BIGOCEANS.COM UNLESS NOTED
friend joined Jaffe for a jaunt across the North Sea — their goal was to make it to Amsterdam non-stop. They made it as far as Belgium. "We got caught in horrible weather," Jaffe said. "Johannes vowed to never sail on a small boat again." Not wanting to tempt fate on the North Sea again, Jaffe entered the canals and made his way to Amsterdam. "I was going to go to Hamburg and work for a year," he recalled, "but I needed to keep going, needed to keep the momentum." To singlehand from Amsterdam to Oz, one generally needs an autopilot or a windvane — Constellation had neither. To get the money for a vane, Jaffe literally had to beg, borrow and even steal a little. "I borrowed some money and sold a bunch of stuff on eBay to get the vane," he said. "But then I was totally broke — no money at all. I had to saw off the ends of the dock to make the mounting blocks!"
By then it was September, and everyone had left or packed up for the season. "When I'd tell people I was going south," Jaffe said, "They'd say 'You can't do it, it's crazy.' I just told them I had to try."
Jaffe considers September 17, 2007, his official start date, as that was the day he sailed out of Amsterdam for good. He made his way south, exploring the French coastline before getting ready to make the jump across the Bay of Biscay. He consulted a weather service which told him that if he left the next day — and took no more than three days to make the crossing — he'd be fine. But if he was out there any longer, the front that was moving in would nail him. "I loaded the boat up with fuel and powered through," he said. "There was no wind at all, so the windvane wouldn't steer the boat. I hand steered the entire trip. I got 9 hours of sleep during the 96-hour trip. It was just epic — I was off my tree when I arrived in Spain! And the next day, a boat was towed in that had got caught in the front — their rudder had been smashed off." Jaffe spent the next several weeks exploring Spain and Portugal, spending Christmas with a welcoming Portuguese family. But time was running short — again — and he needed to make the jump to the Canaries. Again, everyone told Jaffe he was a nutter for even trying to do it so late in the season, but he didn't want to give up the momentum he'd built. "I had epic swells for the first couple days — 20-23 feet — but then it flattened out and I had the greatest sail of my life." Once in the Canaries, Jaffe's sailing days were put on hold. "I had a sponsor who sent me two solar panels for the Atlantic trip," he said, "but it took two months for them to get there from Norway." By the time they arrived in late March, every other boat had already left. "I was behind everyone by a month or two. But it was a weird year — the seasons were out of whack by that much in my favor."
Despite a "horrific" cross swell for the
first three days of the trip, Jaffe soldiered on until he popped out of the tradewinds. "I sat for a few days," he laughed. "But I called my friend Rich Jones [on a sat phone donated by a Dutch family], who checked the weather charts and gave me a waypoint where there was wind." Jones was right and Jaffe landed in Barbados 30 days after leaving the Canaries. From Barbados, he quickly made his way up to Antigua, where he waited a week for the weather to clear. With no money, he could afford little more than Top Ramen and flour for provisions, and nothing for fuel, for his planned non-stop to New York City. "I was eating Ramen and pancakes every day," Jaffe said, "so I thought about stopping at Bermuda to get more food. But you know what the hardest part of any journey is? Leaving. So I blew off Bermuda."
But a strange thing happened when he crossed the Gulf Stream: "I was moving at about four knots . . . toward Nova Scotia! Then I was heading south at four knots. I couldn't work it out." A frantic search through an old Don Street book gave him the answer: Sometimes a clockwise eddy occurs on the north side of the Gulf Stream. Jaffe's weather buddy checked satel-
LATITUDE / LADONNA
'Captain Ted' Biggs — and many others — spent countless hours helping Nick get 'Constellation' ready for the rest of her journey home.
NICK JAFFE
lite images and confirmed he was caught in a 60-mile-wide eddy. And he had no choice but to ride it south and hope he could slingshot himself out, à la Apollo 13. His luck held, and the eddy spit him out right on course for the Big Apple. About 150 miles offshore, Jaffe claims he saw the worst weather of his entire trip. "I thought, after all this, I was going to sink the boat this close to land." But Constellation rode the seas like a pro and delivered him safely to the shores of Manhattan — 28 days after leaving Antigua. After a surprisingly eventful trip on Long Island Sound — the boom cracked, engine exploded, genoa blew out and electronics got fried — Brewer Yacht Yard hauled Constellation and got started setting her straight. Jaffe, in the meantime, worked to earn the money to truck her cross-country to Berkeley.
"One guy emailed and told me that I was cheating by not going through the Panama Canal," recalls Jaffe. "I had to remind him that the Canal isn't a natural phenomenon, so that's 'cheating', too. As far as I'm concerned, the only legitimate ways to get around this continent are Cape Horn and the Northwest Passage." Once again brushing off the inexplicable rudeness of a few strangers, Jaffe relied on the kindness of others to put Constellation back together, from the boys at Brewer, who donated labor and gear, to a cadre of Bay sailors eager to get Nick sailing again. "She's way better kitted out now than ever before," he admitted. On June 7, a month after arriving on the West Caost, Constellation sailed out of Half Moon Bay in the company of three new Bay Area friends. After a couple hours, they broke off one by one, said their goodbyes, and headed back to the Bay. "The hardest part about this trip is making all these great friends and then leaving them behind." As this issue went to press, Jaffe and Constellation were roughly halfway to Hawaii, their first stop on the way south to Australia (follow his track and blog on www.BigOceans.com). "I hope to make it home by November. Everyone keeps telling me I can't do it," Nick said with a wry smile. "But they've been telling me that the whole way." — latitude/ladonna
'Constellation' at rest in Antigua.
