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.

[CapnK]

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, 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.

[CapnK]

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

[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.