Ariel #1 Kestrel's Sailing Adventure

[walberts]

Kestrel, hull #1, is on her way south. She, her owner and his fiance, left on October 31. By this posting, she should be below Annapolis and working her way toward Solomon's Island on the Patuxent River. The plan is to head down the Inland Waterway to Florida and, if all goes well, to jump off for the West Indies from there.

If you see her along her route, be sure to honk, wave and generally make these two young people welcome. It's a big adventure for all three of them.

Bill

[walberts]

Deltaville, VA today. The past 2 days she was in Reedville. It's cold but no one aboard Kestrel has been heard complaining. They have no sink, just a camp sink, and a camp stove. No water tank, but they're carrying 22 gallons in jugs.

Young people and a good old boat make good company.

In a couple of days they should be at mile 1 on the Inland Waterway.

[walberts]

Kestrel is now working her way across Albemarle Sound and down the Alligator River. The hope is to be at the River's southern end by nightfall.
It's sunny and in the 60's with a Northerly breeze. Quite a different weather pattern from what we have up here where it's rainy and 38 F. They're heading in the right direction.

[epiphany]

Unfortunately, the warm weather is going to evaporate out in front of them. :( The forecast here is 75 today and tomorrow, rainy tomorrow, dropping to highs around 60 there on out, with more rain Sunday. Lows won't be *too* bad - 37/46/53 Fr/Sa/Su, but they sure aren't to any island weather yet! :)

I'll send you a PM, Bill - thx for passing the info along. :)

[walberts]

Captain Trevor has given permission to post Kestrel's blog site. Kestrel is in Oriental, NC today, Thanksgiving. Weather will probably hold them in port for a couple of days, then onward. The pictures posted on the blog are of the trip down the Chesapeake Bay, and an Oyster Festival in Reedville, VA.

The site is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/svkestrel/

Bill

[walberts]

Thanks Kurt. I just let Captain Trevor know the info you sent along. As it happens they are just north of the spot at a place called Wrightsville Beach.
So your timing was impeccable.

Also, they have posted a few more pictures but have done so at such a high resolution that they have exceeded their limit for the month. Next month, low-res and more pics. I've encouraged them to post up here on the ariel website and they said they would when they reach a spot with internet access.

I need contact information for you. They're getting closer to Charleston and I've encouraged them to visit that city. It's one of our favorites. Can I get it on sailfar?

Bill

[walberts]

Don't know exactly where they are. They had prop trouble and had to be hauled out ... Lost a couple of days but are about to begin moving south again. It happened after a grounding below Wrightsville Beach. All is ok though. They didn't lose the prop or damage the rudder.

I hope you get to meet them. Don't know what the plan is at this point, other than to push on south as soon as possible.

Thanks for your offers of help, Kurt. The learning curve is sometimes tough, but very direct! We all know it well.

[walberts]

Kestrel is south of Charleston. She did push on as I supposed, after the grounding and prop trouble. Next came belt problems with the engine. But, the crew, after more than a month aboard, with no heat, no hot water, no sink and only a camp stove, is happy and well adjusted to the cold!

It's cold in South Carolina tonight, but nothing like it is on the Chesapeake! They are used to it ... but (Kurt, no offence ... I think they really wanted to have a chance to visit) they are really pushing to get farther south. Winter has been breathing down their necks for the past 4 weeks plus!

More as I am informed.

Speaking of informed ... I understand that there is an article about Kestrel and her crew in the most recent issue of Soundings magazine.

[walberts]

I just heard that they have made it to the Florida border. The plan is to get to Melbourne in time for Christmas. It's finally warm! I have no doubt that a month of cold weather with few chances to get out of it prompted them to keep pushing on.

I haven't checked the picture site (blog site) but they said they'd post them as they could.

[commanderpete]

http://www.towndock.net/shippingnews


Kestrel - The First Pearson Ariel
January 1, 2008



Gwynneth Anderson and Trevor Griffiths stopped in at the Town Dock in Oriental in late November, on board board “Kestrel”, the first Pearson Ariel ever made.


It was Thanksgiving Day when they arrived and from Gwynneth’s perspective, thanks were in order to Trevor’s father, John. Because of his endeavors, they have the boat to live on for the next half year.

The story goes back a bit.

Trevor says his parents had met each other in the islands — his father had sailed there from England, his mother was working on a charter schooner. They spent time on boats but ultimately moved to land. His father went to work as a marine surveyor.

But as Trevor recalls, his father “just couldn’t live with the idea of not having a boat.”


This is where the Ariel comes in… but not in the bristol shape that she showed off at the Oriental Town Dock.
If a boat could have sunk on land, Trevor says, “Kestrel” had. She had spent years on the hard in a Maryland boat yard, filling with water.

Around 2000, the owners of the boat yard wanted to get rid of it.

John Griffiths bought “Kestrel” and with it quite a project. He brought the boat to a “huge workshop” (Trevor says it is bigger than his parents’ home) near the Sassafras River in Maryland and got to work.

One particular power tool was put to a lot of use. Trevor says his father “took a chainsaw and cut the interior out.” And there he made one of the biggest changes to the boat, one that would be quickly apparent to anyone accustomed to the Ariel’s formica and plastic interiors. John rebuilt the entire interior out of cherry. Now, down below, it lends a warmth and coziness to the space.


Trevor notes that some Ariel purists may not have liked that change (which also, Gwynneth noted, made for a lot of storage behind the seating area).
In addition to gutting and reworking the interior, John Griffiths reglassed the decks and replaced the failing gas engine with a diesel. With the diesel taking up space beneath the companionway, the galley — a campstove — has moved out to the cockpit.

Meanwhile, the boat has gained a head and holding tank. That marks a departure from the standard Ariel in which a porta-potty was the standard fare.

Gwynneth was especially enthusiastic about that departure from the original design. Like Trevor, she’d grown up sailing too, sometimes in Oriental when her parents lived in the Triangle. Their boat, modest in size, had a porta potty and distinct memories of her mother hauling the ‘suitcase’ to a public restroom were still fresh; Gwynneth wanted no part of that.

With limited space on the Ariel, the decision was made to put the commode under the v-berth — which is why during the day, she and Trevor explain, the v-berth is not in place.

Trevor and Gwyneth set south on “Kestrel” in early November. Since graduating from the University of Maryland a few years ago, Gwynneth and Trevor had been living and working in Washington — she with the Smithsonian Folk-Life Festival and he working for a company that develops bike and pedestrian plans for cities such as Seattle.

They both used bikes to get around Washington but on their boat they decided not to take them along, given the limited space. Similar considerations kept Trevor from taking along a banjo though he did find room for a small guitar.



The two are also traveling light when it comes to a schedule for the next half year. They say they are thinking of aiming for the Bahamas, but for the moment, “heading south is our only solid plan.” other than returning north toward Maryland in the late spring.

A few weeks in to the trip, Gwynneth said the more they were living on the boat, the less it was a “scary adventure” and the more confident she got. Plus, there were those experiences such as seeing a pod of dolphins a few days earlier near Broad Creek. All of which she said, made her want to push back the return trip.

And would they one day want to sail on something larger?

Gwynneth laughs and says they, “should try to persuade Trevor’s father to buy a 35 foot boat to fix up.”

Trevor added that if that happened, he would want to have more of a hand in restoring it than he did on “Kestrel”, so that he could better know the boat’s systems. In the early stages of the voyage south on board “Kestrel” an answer to any questions has been a cell phone call away to John Griffiths. Who as it turns out, has a boat that is sailing once again.


Kestrel is named for a bird that sails in to a headwind. A Louis Wain cat, stenciled in to the dinghy, follows in the wake.

Posted Tuesday January 1, 2008 by Melinda Penkava

[walberts]

Kestrel (Hull #1) is in Nassau. waiting for a weather window to head to the Exumas. She got caught in some very rough weather heading down from Chubb Key with waves breaking over the boat, but she handled it beautifully under triple reefed main and storm jib. Now the crew is drying out the boat and themselves. They have said that every where they have gone they have met friendly people who have helped them along the way.

Crossing the Gulf stream, they experienced 20 kt winds that headed them and as they were trying to make the entrance to the harbor at Chubb Key. They were being set North by the current. When Trevor started the engine it quit, :eek:so they had to work their way in under sail. That took a while, but they managed it. The problem turned out to be an air lock in the diesel caused by the fact that Kestrel was heeled so far over when he started it. Anyway, they got in and got it sorted out.

They've been gone since Halloween ... Cooking on a camp stove and carrying their water in 2 gallon jugs... Washing dishes in a camp sink. Trevor and Gwen write that they are still loving the adventure. No word yet on when they plan to turn around and head back north.

[walberts]

Kestrel is back after her trip to the Exumas.

From Bimini to Fort Pierce in less than 24 hours. Overfalls at the inlet. Spring tide flowing out ... 25 knot wind blowing in ... the boat was swept ...

9 foot seas earlier ...

140 miles in less than 24 hours.

Melbourne tonight.

All is well.

Great boat.

[epiphany]

5.8+ mph/hr (kts/hr?) average for a 24 hr period - they were pouring on the coal! :D

[walberts]

They rode the Gulf Stream and at times they hit 9 kts. Nearly 140 miles. I know the wind was on their quarter all the way and it was really blowing steadily. The arrival timing was not good because there was a spring tide ebbing from the inlet and 25 kts. blowing in over it. That created overfalls and they were entirely swept but got through unscathed if very wet.

They made the trip entirely under sail.

[walberts]

As of yesterday, 4/23/08, Kestrel was in Oriental, NC on her way back to the Chesapeake Bay. Weather has been attrocious all along the East Coast offshore, so she was held up for a couple of days. Today she starts North again. She's been logging 70 mile days ... captain and crew are pushing to get back. Both have jobs that require their presence within 2 weeks.

Hopefully the Fat Lady will not make an appearance and they will slide home without incident. When you have to push to make a deadline you sometimes take chances you otherwise would not. Fingers crossed.

I look forward to hearing their stories. I'm sure it will be quite an adjustment returning to "normal" life after 6+ months carrying water in 2-gallon jugs and cooking in the cockpit.

[ebb]

is the lead article
and on the front page with a peaceable portrait of the historic Ariel
of the Feb/Mar 2008 issue of the Ariel/Commander Yacht Association NEWSLETTER

Bill Alberts' (A-133 HAABET) is a great read on the recent rebirth of our very first Ariel.

Get yourselves a copy.
Don't miss it!!


IT'S ALSO MEMBERSHIP DUES TIME

as our editor reminds us:

Without our support there would be no

www.PearsonAriel.org

[walberts]

4/28:They made the trip from Norfolk to Reedville in one long, rainy, wet day. The SE wind was their friend on that leg of the trip.

It turned Northwest yesterday.

Yesterday, 4/29/08, Kestrel tried to cross the Potomac but was beaten back. 25 knots on the nose and seas breaking over the boat. Gwen said it was the first time she was really scared on the trip. :eek: They retired from the field, returned to Reedville, and are waiting for a weather window. Once across and into the middle Chesapeake Bay, they can work up incrementally and have lots of safe havens along the way, but there is nothing where they are, except for where they are!

[walberts]

They left Reedville this afternoon, 4/30, at 3. Wind abating. Going for it.

[walberts]

Kestrel arrived at her home port on the Sassafras River in MD a little while ago. They left Reedville, VA at 3 pm yesterday (4/30) and sailed all night. Cold and windy, but the wind was with them and so was the tide. At dawn they were off Tolchester Beach, north of Annapolis and just after 1 they tied up on their home mooring.

They were really moving. They covered in 21 hours the distance that took them 8 days back in November.

Kiss the ground.

Time for lunch and a lot of decompressing after 6 months onboard!:)

[walberts]

I'm attaching two shots of Kestrel on the trip from Nassau to Norman's Cay last winter. The second shot tells something of the sea state.

[commanderpete]

http://www.soundingspub.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=AA11F3E4053147B68C8B77CBE43F6C9A&tier=4&id=248CE648BAE1404485F15ECE287A5DD9

Issue Date: January 2008

Fledgling snowbirds head south
Douglas A. Campbell

Two young sailors start their cruising lives off right: on any day but a Friday



Tropical storm Noel was moving north between Florida and the Bahamas Thursday, Nov. 1, threatening to become a hurricane, but Trevor Griffiths, not quite 25, and his fiancée, Gwynneth Anderson, 24, were scrambling to get their 26-foot sailboat, Kestrel, under way on Maryland’s Sassafras River for a long-planned journey south for the winter. They were less worried about a hurricane than they were about delaying their start a day. Trevor’s father, an accomplished bluewater sailor, had warned them: Never start a voyage on a Friday.

Six days later, Trevor and Gwynneth were all of 50 miles south of their Sassafras mooring. In that span, they had weathered the fringe of the storm as it churned up Chesapeake Bay. In their first flight as snowbirds, they were like all fledglings — cautious — but they were learning. Gwynneth, who had never sailed a cruising boat before they took Kestrel out for sea trials beginning in September, was learning that sailing, despite the popular boat name, isn’t always tranquility.

Trevor, who had always sailed with his parents — John and Sandy Griffiths — was learning that there is a vast difference between captain and crew. “I grew up doing this,” says Trevor, after breakfast in his parents home on the eve of his engagement to Gwynneth and two days before their departure. “And it was something we always wanted to do and expected to do.”

“It was something we both knew we wanted to do,” Gwynneth says.

However, unlike perhaps the majority of snowbirds — retirees who have cashed in their life’s savings to cruise — this couple had a low tolerance for delayed gratification. Having spent two and three years, respectively, at paying jobs after graduating from the University of Maryland, Gwynneth and Trevor had cast off the employment yoke with their parents’ blessing and a special gift. Kestrel — a project boat that John Griffiths began restoring five years ago as a replacement for his oceangoing C&C 40 — is theirs to sail for as long as the spirit moves them.

When Dad first offered Kestrel, Trevor thought the boat was too small. At the time, it certainly wasn’t ready for a winter of wandering. John Griffiths had found the boat in the back of a boatyard. Its deck was spongy. It needed a complete makeover. So Trevor said no thanks and began searching for the right boat. “Anything in our price range was a complete disaster,” he says. One racing sloop, he says, needed years of work.

John had a vision for Kestrel, however. She is Pearson Ariel No. 1. The oval bronze plate now fixed in her cabin proves her pedigree. She has an overall length of 25 feet, 6 inches and a beam of 8 feet. Her full keel is weighted with 2,500 pounds of lead ballast and draws only 3.7 feet. And her hull, laid up in 1962, is solid fiberglass. Kestrel had one more thing going for her: John Griffiths.

“I grew up really close to the Irish Sea and the River Dee, which is Liverpool Bay,” he explains in a still-lilting British accent. “From really early on, I went out in boats.”

Griffiths spent time on an uncle’s commercial fishing boat, and after World War II he taught sailing to folks who had bought their first boats. He sailed the coast of Great Britain, from the Irish Sea to Scotland, and at age 32 quit work and sailed to Spain and the West Indies. At one point he skippered a 100-foot yacht before taking a job ashore as manager of a construction project in the Caribbean. It was there that he met Sandy, an adventurous young woman who wanted to learn to sail. In time, they bought a 40-footer, which they sailed from the islands to the Chesapeake. It was here that Sandy decided she wanted a family. Before that could happen, the couple sailed across the Atlantic to England, but they returned to the Sassafras River and bought land, where Griffiths built a house and began working as a marine surveyor.

The story has many more twists than these, of course. But the short version is that Trevor was born and, from infancy, sailed with his parents — often with his father alone — cruising every summer to Maine and making extended voyages to the Islands. Gwynneth, whose birthday is 87 days after Trevor’s, also was introduced to sailing as a child, though on daysailers, not cruising boats.

When the couple accepted that Kestrel would be their best hope for sailing south, the boat was still in dire need of completion. That was in spring 2006. Trevor, who earned degrees in geography and environmental sciences, was working as a cartographer, designing maps. Gwynneth worked in Washington, D.C., for a Ralph Nader public-interest organization. Both were recruited to finish Kestrel. “John always said we had to work on the boat immediately if we wanted to take it anywhere,” Gwynneth says.

“My dad did the major work,” Trevor says. “He obviously masterminded everything.”

Work progressed slowly until about six months before the departure, Gwynneth says. “We reached some sort of panic level to get everything done,” she says. They installed a head under the V-berth, painted and varnished, and scraped the bottom.

For his part, John, in addition to repairing Kestrel, fitted the boat with cabinetry above the settees in the saloon, installed a new 16-hp diesel, and fabricated a dodger frame with the tubing from an old Bimini top. Sandy, in the final days, eyeballed that frame and sewed a tight-fitting canvas dodger with isinglass windows.

Neighbors came to the Griffiths’ home in the days before the voyage was to begin, carrying all sorts of supplies for the young sailors. With their clock ticking closer to Nov. 1, they had to spend time getting their dinghy registered. Trevor felt overwhelmed at times. Gwynneth tried to compare the experience to some other in her life but couldn’t. “It’s not at all like starting a new job or college, although it’s the same kind of nervousness,” she says.

They loaded collapsible water tanks aboard Kestrel. They have a two-burner propane camp stove to cook. They have no shower on board and certainly no room for privacy. What they do have — like all snowbirds — is dreams, if somewhat different interpretations.

“You’re not going to cruise the rest of your life,” says Trevor, before they cast off.

“Oh, we might,” says Gwynneth.

“Not on Kestrel,” says Trevor.