Sail: #2 genoa, full; main, one reef; tack starboard quarter.
Solid sleep last night in one and two hour shifts. Wind remained strong (25 knots) but consistent. No deckwork required. I let Mo go, and she burned up the road.
Overnight Mo creamed along south under a full main and big genoa. Slowly, but steadily, the wind built. I woke once an hour to monitor passing ships–there were five on the scope at one point–and to worry about when I should take a reef, which I did not do until 3am with winds steady at 22 knots.
Wind is steady at 25 knots this afternoon; still, it slowly builds. The big genoa is in. I have a double tuck in the #2 and two reefs in the main and we make better then 7 knots.
If you’d asked me a month ago how the first few days of the F8V2.0 would go, a description including “anchored at Drakes Bay” would not have made the consideration set.
Tuesday, rain until noon. After lunch, the sky pulled back to reveal towering cumulus, and a light northerly filled in that got my attention. By then, however, I had the engine room opened up for a fluids and filter change.
Morning showers clear. I make a second cup of coffee. From the cockpit, I watch two hikers cross the long, bare ridge of Point Reyes and make for the lighthouse. What a luxury, a hike. With luck I will not set foot on land for ten months. But to be so close to land I love, to smell the pines and wet grass, to watch the elk and hawk when I should be at sea with the dancing wave and the storm petrel!
It was not a surprise, this start. Jo and I had picked the departure date two months ago, targeting a weekend when she was free combined with a convenient ebb. The wind would be what it was, and it was usually northwest.
Next day, October 28, 2017, I departed into fog a shaken man. I had left many times, but never for such a circumnavigation and never after such a night. I hugged friends. I waved to the small flotilla that followed me out. As I rode the ebb under the bridge, Jo quickly drove to Pigeon Point for a last exchange. I never saw her or the point; I never saw the point. The fog had swallowed all, and the wind carried me quickly to sea.
Dear Virtual Voyagers,
Improbably, the focus of this post is fountain pen ink, but it takes some explaining to get there.
So after nearly 3 years of swatch testing and experimenting, I have decided to take the Blue Black challenge and design my own ink. For some, taking an off-the-shelf colour and badging it with their own label is an obvious and easy thing to do. Having swatch tested hundreds of inks I can now spot these quite easily as each ink manufacturer has their own house style. But re-badging can be frustrating for enthusiasts who inadvertently can end up with two, three or more bottles of the same ink but with a different label. To that end, I can assure you that my Randall is absolutely unique.
So what’s it like?
Well, it’s a creative ink as you’d expect, with a great tonal range, and chromatography from darkest black blue to royal blue, turquoise and pink plus there’s a cheeky crimson sheen too, which I wanted to include as it’s something a little fashionable and of our time. It’s also intended as a stylish everyday writing ink.
It’s been described by some reviewers as a ‘chameleon’ ink – as it changes tone and colour depending on the nib used and the paper surface chosen, and it really can change before your eyes. The wetter the nib, the deeper the colour. (Links to reviews can be found at the end of this post). This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea I appreciate, but in the spirit of the project, I’m more than happy with it.
As I couldn’t manufacture this myself, I sent my vials and recipe notes to Diamine, who matched my samples exactly and, in my opinion, they’ve done a great job.
Using a Noodlers Nib Creeper – top left to right – on Rhodia dot matrix, Cartridge paper and Tamoe River
Bottom – Tamoe River (sheen)
Using an automatic pen on cartridge paper the ink is very dark (left) with a pronounced sheen (middle). When dipped in water the tonal and colour range is evident (right).
The combination of the tonal range and sheen allows for exciting art journalling possibilities.
The sails and other highlights were achieved using bleach
So what about the name?
I wanted this ink to be associated with something truly inspiring. Something a little off the wall, a little dangerous but totally engrossing. It was tempting to take the easy road and buddy up with another stationery related opportunity, but I wanted a great story to tell. Something packed full of passion, suffering and courage. As an offshore sailor myself, much of my inspiration comes from those experiences at sea, but Randall Reeves, who is married to my late Uncle’s goddaughter, Joanna, is doing something totally mind-blowing.
In the fall of 2017, Randall set sail for a first-ever solo circumnavigation of both the American and Antarctic continents in one season. The route passes through all of the world’s oceans, approach both poles, and around Cape Horn twice. No one has done this before – no one has even tried. His voyage combines two historic and dangerous routes, one in the deep Southern Ocean and one through the Arctic. Ferdinand Magellan, the first ever to circle the globe, departed in 1519 with six ships and 270 men. His voyage via Cape Horn took 16 months to complete. Only one ship returned.
When the expeditions of Captain James Cook departed 300 years later, the globe had only been encircled a handful of times. Risks were extreme; loss of life, common. Though Cook pushed further toward the poles than any other sailor in history, even he failed to find the mythic Northwest Passage. After Cook, countless vessels searched for a route through the Arctic. All failed. Many ships and men were forever frozen in ice before Roald Amundsen’s successful transit in 1904. But even Amundsen had the company of 12 crewmen on his two-year voyage.
The first solo sailors to head south of the continents for a non-stop circumnavigation, now considered the Everest of the sport, didn’t do so until 1968, and today fewer than 150 have completed this stormy passage. In the north, only three sailors have even attempted the frozen Arctic alone, all since 2011. Randall is the first to put these two dangerous and historic routes, a Southern Ocean circumnavigation and a transit of the Arctic, into one epic passage, the Figure 8 Voyage.
His first attempt was quashed following a massive storm and knockdown in the Southern Ocean almost costing him his life. He is currently sailing back to San Francisco for repairs and modifications and will then have another shot at it starting August – September 2018.
In a world where humans are increasingly living their lives through avatars, Randall stands tall amongst real people. Like this project, he’s prepared to ask questions, to experiment and accept the consequences when things go wrong.
Humans are naturally curious and creative, we are NOT robots. We must be careful that technology, and those in charge of it, do not destroy the spirit within. Randall is the real deal and you can follow his eloquent journals on his blog at http://figure8voyage.com/blog/. I am humbled to be associated with him and I hope the qualities of this new ink, named in his honour, are a befitting testament to his courage and tenacity. I will be celebrating key milestones of Randall’s next attempt with Randall Blue Black ink related competitions and giveaways, so stay tuned!
Go check him out and get inspired! http://figure8voyage.com/blog/.
I have 50 x 50ml bottles available and each bottle comes with a unique and signed piece of art (not framed). The cost per package is £15.00 (GBP) – shipping to be added at cost. I was going to set up an online shop but the costs keep creeping up and creating your own ink is more expensive than one would think. To that end, if you would like both, please email me direct at nick@stewart2.com and we can proceed from there. I have a PayPal account for payment transactions. First come first served.
Each bottle comes with one of my 50 unique signed landscape swatch cards shown above. (Card dimensions: 70mm x 95mm)
They may be small but they are unique and frame well! I will do my best to increase their value over time.
Reviewer Links
Far Too Many Pens – http://scribbledemonboddo.blogspot.com/2018/06/nick-stewarts-randall-fountain-pen-ink.html
UK Fountain Pens – https://ukfountainpens.com/2018/06/16/a-very-special-blue-black-randall-by-nick-stewart/
Noah Maasarani and others – https://www.facebook.com/groups/fountainpensuk/
More to come…
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Twitter: @nickistew
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I also have a portfolio of test art pieces at: www.behance.net/Nick_Stewart
July 8, 2018
I ran the twins polled out overnight and Mo made 4 and 5 knots in a decent breeze aft. Stars for a time. Scorpio. The Dipper. I almost grabbed the sextant. But the sun sets late now and the great helpings of three-day-old beef stew and red wine I’d taken on before the night began did not lend themselves to arithmetic, even fourth grade arithmetic. I watched the stars for a time. Even noted the Milky Way. And went to bed.
The low gave us a good push overnight. And with just the working jib to pull us along, it was a gentle ride. The gray sky and a boulder-ridden sea crashing a kind of ice blue reminded of the Southern Ocean in a tempest-in-a-teapot sort of way. It was pleasant to feel the power of wind on water, to feel Mo shouldering her way resolutely through steep 8 and 12-footers, to take that slapping break against her windward quarter and to swing right back.
I thought we’d skirted the core of it or that the forecast was just wrong, but a building wind this afternoon went from high teens to low thirties in an instant, and suddenly the low was upon us.
I can’t fathom today’s weather. You are thinking hot dogs, cold beer, and fireworks on a warm summer’s evening. A mere 700 miles NW of San Francisco, I’m plowing through low cloud and freezing rain. I’ve gone back to thermal underwear and a fleece hat. Two weeks ago I was sleeping without a cover; now I’m in the down bag.
Note the above reference to the highly unusual absence of FOG, which has finally cleared after nearly a week. Cleared to a heavy, dark deck of cloud, but this is a positive step. We are not trapped under a dome after all; we did not end up in Minnesota. Amazingly, it’s just the ocean we’re on. Just.
It’s too early to be counting miles, but I’m counting anyway. A rhumb line to the Golden Gate Bridge was 872 miles as of this morning. Add 15% for not sailing a rhumb line and that comes to 1,002. At an average of 110 miles per day, we arrive in nine days. At 120, 8.4; at 130, 7.7; at 140, 7.2. So, figure somewhere between a week and that plus two. Sadly, I’ll miss out 4th of July fireworks.
Ghosting. The idea has haunted my day. Mo glides silently through the water with no apparent effort and from no apparent aid, for the spinnaker is engorged and immobile, but on what wind? I climb into the cockpit, and I can feel none on my face. The meter says true wind is 8 knots. Another meter says we are traveling with it at 4 knots. I should feel 4 knots on my face but do not. Possibly the meters conspire, even with the meter that shows our course. They have their own destination in mind.
NOTE: I’ve shut down the high tech Fleet Broadband 250 satellite unit and am switching to the Iridium GO! for the, hopefully short, duration of this cruise. The bandwidth of the GO only allows for low resolution photos and only one or two.
Winds came on strong overnight and were a steady SW20 – 25 when I climbed into the pilot house at 5am. I had left both headsails polled out and full as the wind built, and we creamed along, cutting a perceptible path in this interminable fog, just barely under control.
At the very least, I will have seen more water than the average Joe, and can sympathize with the naturalist who once said, “Given what covers most of Earth, it’s a wonder we don’t call it planet Ocean.”
