A new year and very different than last year. This time last year when I was rounding the Cape of Good Hope south of Africa. These days there has been a lot of work going on on Abby’s boat and almost all the time I can spare I'm down there. I've also been doing a minor refit on Intrepid mostly resealing and sanding. We replaced another bulkhead and have had to rewire some stuff that we didn’t have time to do before I left.
My senior year in highschool is also going well. I've got US History, Health, Government and Economics this year then I graduate. The DVD has been a really complicated process but its finally coming together and should be out in about a month.
As far as adventures go I'm aiming to climb Everest next season but right now I'm setting up a dirt biking trip down thru south America to Ushuaia the southernmost city in the world by way of the Darién Gap. I have also been doing a lot of research on the Northwest Passage - the ice pass above Canada and Alaska.
I've been speaking here and there which has been great. Sometimes I speak to yacht clubs like at the end of this month I will be heading out to Detroit to the Bay View Yacht Club to talk about my trip. Next month is the Adventures in Travel Expo in Los Angeles and the Brentwood Academy in Tennessee.
Lots going on in the Sunderland house these days with Wild Eyes finally over from Florida and Abby's departure date right around the corner. Since my last blog which was quite a while ago I have turned 18 had a really fun party with some good friends down in the marina. Soon after that it was down to Ensenada with my dad, photographer Lisa Gizara and her fiancee Eric to pick up Wild Eyes off the ship. Abby had sailed down with our friend Peter a day before. We met up with an LA Times crew down there - it was good to see Pete Thomas and Al Seib again.
The next day the boat was put in the water and they were off. My dad, Abby and the LA Times guys in Wild Eyes and Peter and myself in his Fairweather 39 doing the bash up to San Diego. The trip went well in Lady K; warm food, 3 hours on and 3 hours off watches but from what I hear, Wild Eyes was quite cramped as the boat is really only made to fit one and there were five!
We bashed along through the night in the freezing cold til we were off of the Coronado Islands where Wild Eyes slammed into a drifting kelp patty. We ended up towing them for a little way and arrived in SD around 6am after a pretty sleepless night. We both cleared customs after which the LA Times crew got out of there pretty fast. Looking at Wild Eyes we saw that some how the boat was wrapped in kelp so out with the wet suit and knives and I jumped into the freezing water. It took me 2 hours to cut my way through it all. It was weird staying up all night and then being weightless under water. I was 10 feet under holding on to the keel and started to fall asleep under water holding my breath. I think I had a dream and everything!
After that experience and some super glue holding my sliced hand together we were off again for a pretty smooth sail down to Marina del Rey. Now that I'm back it is just lots of work to do. I've been doing a lot of work on Intrepid getting her back to her previous glory - slow and steady.
The long awaited DVD production is moving along and is due out at the first of the year. Thanks again for all of your patience.
Got home to Thousand Oaks after an awesome run down the coast to Florida. We had heavy weather, light whether, wind on the nose and wind behind us. I think Abby really learned a lot about the boat. We loaded it on a ship in Fort Lauderdale and it should be arriving around the first week in December. Till then she is working out, going to meetings and interviewing as she tries to get the last sponsors on board.
I've been busy with school, the gym and still going to lots of meetings. As for my next adventure, I'm training for an Everest climb and also planning out a possible North West Passage sailing route and a motorcycle trip down to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.
Well turning 18 on the 29th finally gonna get my driver's licence.
Was having trouble with uploading blogs and photos. All seems sorted now. Here are a few shots from the trip. We should be pulling out today. Fort Lauderdale late tomorrow afternoon all being well. Cheers, Zac
So after 6 hrs of flying we landed in Rhode Island it was about 30 degrees when we got out of the airport at around 1am and found our way to rent a car. After a few wrong turns we got to the hotel, woke up the owner, got a room and crashed..
By the time we got to the yard the next day, Wild Eyes was already in the water. I spent the day working on the boat, wiring up alternators, tightening hose clamps, and loading up all the sails that were in a sail loft 4 stories up while my dad and Abby went all over the place looking for various bits and pieces. The cold is so bitter in Rhode Island you've really gotta keep moving to keep from freezing.
After finishing up the jobs on the boat I was checking out the yard. It was a really huge place with some amazing boats like a 100+ft racing cat and a couple 12 meter America's Cup boats. In my wanderings I met a Norwegian guy named Trond. He was first mate on a boat that had just sailed down from Iceland. There is some crazy sailing up there and we ended up crashing on his boat for a couple of nights while we waited for our weather window to open up.
Anyway, we also met some people from a mega yacht called is Ilsandia. We had dinner over on their boat and discussed weather, route and how to best dodge the Gulf Stream current. Over the next couple days we worked on the boat and got used to the cold weather.
On Halloween we went to a party at a local restaurant with our friends from Islandia. The next morning, we were on the boat before the sun came up and left the dock around 7am. We sailed out under full sail past the machines on the shore. Wild Eyes is extremely light and we put the first reef in before we hit open water. After a little struggle with the auto pilot we were off heading toward our first way point at 10knots.
The wind died a little during the day but filled in in the evening and by morning we were doing 15s in the pouring rain, freezing and wet, but tons of fun surfing down 10 foot waves. The weather stayed the same for the next 2 days - rainy and fast hitting a max speed of 24knots and regular 20s. It was smooth sailing till Cape Hatteras where we slammed head on in to the Gulf Stream and halved our boat speed.
My dad and I decided to head in shore and hopefully pickup the counter current. This worked a bit - no counter current but we got to a weaker part of the north bound Gulf Stream. The moon has been almost full and it is awesome to have the extra light when the sky is clear.
So we have had pretty smooth sailing till yesterday when the wind shifted on to the forward quarter and we started bashing into 20 knots. Heavy wind on the nose is hell on a racing sled meant for surfing down waves so after 8hrs of getting the hell kicked out of us my dad asked me to find a port to go into for the night. After looking through some detailed charts I found a bay called Fort Pierce so we changed course and sped along the 35 miles surfing down waves with the boat speed up in the teens. We got to the entrance just after the sun set. After a little engine trouble we managed to find the nav lights, headed in and found the public dock. We moored up to the pier for the night.
Have been doing a lot of work on the boat right now. Mike Smith, who helped with the electrical systems on Intrepid, came down from North Carolina and has been going over the electronic systems on Wild Eyes.
We are looking to head out of here as soon as the wind direction changes. Could be as late as Tuesday morning from today's forecast.
Well I've got to get back to it here. I'll let ya know when we get in to Fort Lauderdale. Till then, fair winds everybody.
I spoke with Zac yesterday. He had managed to get his sat phone antenna to work and was able to get a call out - though a rough one. The crew were enjoying Wild Eyes' speeds and were a few hundred miles out of Fort Lauderdale. Zac was enjoying being back at sea and was pretty excited to have made, at one point, 24 knots surfing down a wave.
A DVD status update was sent out to all of those who prepurchased a DVD. If you did not recieve this email please email Marianne@zacsunderland.com. Please include your order number with your request. Cheers, Marianne
