Kirsten GGR October Newsletter

Another two or more months have passed since the last newsletter. How time flies, with just not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything that needs to be done! Tide and time certainly wait for no man or woman, and it is now less than a year to the start of the Golden Globe Race. Not only is the race drawing nearer each day, but the season is changing; going from the heat of just a few weeks ago into the chill of fall: a reminder that the winter will be here soon, with a pressing need to get underway.

Plenty has happened too since the last newsletter. Eddie and I were working round-the-clock towards getting the boat launched:

One of the obvious things before launch was to complete every bit of intended work below the waterline. In Minnehaha’s case, all her previous layers of anti-fouling were first scraped, and then wet sanded off. It was quite a laborious task, that happened over many weeks and in gradual stages, until the hull was down to the protective epoxy layer, from where one could determine that there was neither damage, nor osmosis. As it turned out, Minnehaha’s hull was in immaculate shape.

She first got a couple of layers of Interprotect paint, and thereafter multiple layers of antifouling – in different colours, so that as the first layer wears through, one will be able to see the next layer’s colour show. When painting a hull, one obviously gets to the point where blocking and jack-stands need to be shuffled around, so that no patches are left bare, and this can also sometimes take up a fair bit of time – but let’s say, no stone was left unturned on the hull!

Then, after all the work that was done on the stern, Minnehaha’s name had been scraped off, so that too needed to be replaced. Easy enough to have the vinyl cut and stick it on – but just an example of little detail jobs that all take their larger or smaller amount of time and organizing… Jobs like these were there in the hundreds, without going into the detail of naming them all…

All other jobs best left for a dry and controlled environment also took priority. One of these jobs was to prepare Minnehaha’s deck for applying the Kiwigrip non-skid paint. This included roughing up the paint to about an 80-100 grit, after having taped off any areas that should remain smooth – like patterns within the tread, and borders around all deck fittings. To achieve a pleasant finish, and pleasing aesthetic look, all corners were given a smooth radius. Maybe not altogether surprising that the taping of all of this took considerably longer than the actual application of the paint. The paint itself was effective and easy to apply, and gave a coarse enough texture – so quite the pleasure to work with.

Amidst all of these ongoings, Eddie toiled away tirelessly, at reenforcing all sorts of fittings on the new mast. We had decided in advance already, that having the more “old-school” tangs with compression tubes would probably be a solid way to attach the wires to the rig, so Eddie machined all those tangs and reinforcements himself – and as in with everything he does, this job turned out to be an absolute masterpiece – work that is not only very aesthetic, but more importantly, that in its ruggedness and strength really does give me a lot of peace of mind!

Many of the jobs were small and fiddly in nature, and the progress was not always noticeable – like discovering that the seals in the portholes were perished and needed replacing – a good thing to discover when it was still easy to take all the portholes out, while the boat was still under a roof.

The spray dodger also finally got worked on: the canvas from the old dodger was condemned, and Eddie then made up a new stainless steel dodger frame – of course another highly functional and strong work of art. The new dodger is a bit smaller for less windage than the old one, and is more than strong enough to hang onto, has handles that can easily be grabbed when and where needed, and has any amount of tweaking options for tensioning up the canvas, with all sorts of turnbuckles. However, in extreme weather, it would not be too laborious to just remove the whole thing. So once Eddie and I were happy with the dodger frame, we got those who know how to work professionally with canvas, to do the rest.

In this case it was upholsterer, Jim Perry, from Charlottetown. The demands on him for this dodger were, no doubt, somewhat out of the ordinary: for one, I asked him to make the dodger out of double layer of material. The reason for this request was of course strength, but also as it would be best to have highly visible colour - bright orange - for the dodger. Jim got to work without wasting any time at all, and before long, he had stitched together a fantastic dodger, and very patiently even did modification afterwards, to really tweak it to a custom item, always keeping in mind the need for strength. The dodger turned out really well, and it was obvious how much effort and work Jim put into making it. It was not up for very long though, before I removed it again, to prevent it from getting dirty in the ongoing work. Weeks later, once the boat back in the water and the mast stepped, I returned it.

There were other jobs going on in the background, of course, like electronic installations, carpentry, varnishing, painting, caulking and so forth, but we eventually set a date for the great launch. The first step in this procedure, was to get the boat off the blocking and jack-stands and onto the lobster-boat trailer. This is not exactly what one would call “conventional” transport of keel boats – but as we knew that this is how Minnehaha had been transported from the port of Summerside to the shed, we obviously knew that that it was doable in reverse.

A great big thank you to lobster-boat transporter, Scott Gallant, for his incredible patience and skilled maneuvering in getting her loaded onto the truck. Needless to say, huge thanks to Eddie again, for pulling it all off smoothly, and without incident. Spectators watching the whole procedure might have said that I was a bit jumpy myself, but I was probably not the only one who thought it was a somewhat hair-raising operation. Also, looking back on 9 months of solid work to get Minnehaha to where she was, the stakes of damage were naturally a bit higher. Eddie, who knew only too well that all would go ahead without hitches, must have found everyone else’s nervousness nothing more than amusing!

Once Minnehaha was loaded, the truck could pull her out of the shed, and then she spent her first night under open skies right outside the shed on the truck. At the crack of dawn, the following day Scott was back to drive her down to the commercial dock of the port of Summerside, where the crane driver of a Fitzpatrick and Snow crane was already on stand-by to get Minnehaha splashed into the water. Thanks to the Silverfox Yachtclub of Summerside for the use of the slings! The returning of Minnehaha back into the water was very smooth. Once she was floating, Eddie and I were quick to get below deck to make sure that nothing was leaking. Everything dry. Engine soon fired, and all appeared to be running well, we took her for a spin just outside of the harbour, where it became apparent that the engine could not get up to full revs. Fortunately, Minnehaha has a brand new, 2-bladed feathering Max-prop, so it was a fun event to borrow some Scuba gear and tweak the pitch of the prop. Another two more test runs outside of the harbour wall, and two more adjustments to the pitch, and she was down to perfection – engine running smoothly, getting up to full revs, and not smoking unhealthily.

However, there was a little issue with a fuel leak, so before going too far, we took Minnehaha over to the fishing dock of Summerside, where she spent a whole week, while we worked to iron out a few post-refit teething problems: some minor plumbing issues, which included the head, the fuel leak issues, and also tweaking the depth sounder. Then she was ready to go to the north side of PEI.

So, a motley crew of volunteers and friends got together one early morning, and cast off from the dock in Summerside. The crew consisted of master mariner Rayond Arsenault, Albert Arsenault, Arleigh Hudson and me. Dark clouds still lined the sky, and every now and again some heavy drops of rain came down. The sea was still churned up from a week of incessant wind, and the tide was also flowing, all making for a choppy and confused sea – but enough light to see and therefore avoid any lobster buoys. Coming around Cape Egmont, we had the tide in our favour, but the wind against us, which made for a particular choppy patch of water, with short, steep little waves, but after that, the water smoothed out considerably, the sun came out, the wind swung in our favour. It turned into a delightful afternoon out on the water!

To add to the already great mood on board, a lobster-boat returning to port after a day’s fishing, came up really close for a chat, and handed over 4 juicy, and generously-sized lobsters: one for each person on board. It was a really kind gesture, and the crew sat in the cockpit in the late afternoon sun, relishing a lobster feed. What could be better? Freshest catch – and yet another really kind bit of PEI generosity and hospitality! The night turned out to be an incredibly clear and beautiful one too. About 24 hours after leaving Summerside, the Minnehaha was at the entrance to French River. We motored in with caution, as the depths dropped quite dramatically, but managed to get all the way to the end of the river and onto the dock, where Eddie was standing by to catch a line. It was really a memorable trip, albeit only under engine and without a mast.

Yet another step in the process completed. And why motor without a rig to the north shore of PEI, many asked? Well, the answer was this: Minnehaha still needed to be sailed under jury rig before having the mast stepped – and in open seas! The North shore certainly is open sea, so to be based out of French River, was a perfect location for preparing for an open sea jury rig sail – but the other benefit was that of being much closer to the shed that had housed Minnehaha for the last 8 months, and where there were still any amount of tools, spares and bits and pieces.

We wasted no time in getting the jury rig figured out. Fortunately, we had already given it ample thought during the refit, and Eddie had already come up with machined parts that would attach two spinnaker poles together, with welded eyes for halyard and stay attachments. We had also already decided which sails to use. So, one day of trying out things on the dock was plenty to set out and actually try the jury rig out in action. This time Katelyn also joined for the day – very kindly, to take photographs and document the whole sail. The sail was successful all round! With a trysail as a jib and a reefed staysail as a main, Minnehaha was able to get up to 4,2 knots on a broad reach, and still primarily maintained over 2 knots, when sailing as close to windward as possible, which was somewhat forward of the beam. A fun and interesting little project, and another box ticked for the pre-requisites… WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

Then, there was nothing stopping us anymore from finally getting the mast stepped. The only thing we still needed to do, was to fit a storm trysail track and we still did various little odds and ends to the mast . With the same PEI innovation that got the old mast transported from port to shed when Minnehaha first arrived, so too was the new mast loaded onto hay bails on a trailer and brought from the shed down to the wharf at French River. A huge thanks to Darren Cousins for being willing to transport the mast, and then still hang around all morning, to help get the mast up! Darren has been incredibly helpful, from the very moment Minnehaha approached PEI all those months ago in January, and despite the hard time we give him, like turning his shop into a chaotic shed, borrowing tools from him and not returning them and even stealing his ice-cream!, he still helps wherever he can. Darren, it really means a lot with a lot of good laughs! Thank you!

We had Todd Murphy doing the lifting of the mast with his boomtruck, and he jokingly mentioned that it was the first mast he was stepping for the week! Well, for a first-time mast-stepping, it went really smoothly, so thanks to Todd for the skilful boom truck operation! The mast landed up fitting as though it had always been a part of Minnehaha. Of course, initially it was secured with a whole lot of halyards, rather than the standing rigging, because the standing rigging still needed to be cut to length, and have its sta-locks fitted. This all takes time and thought – so these were then jobs that followed over the next days…

While still getting running rigging sorted and fine-tuning everything, another problem started to become apparent: the engine mounts that initially seemed OK, no longer seemed so, after having done a fair bit of motoring, so Eddie wasted no time in sourcing new ones, and once they arrived, he made quick and easy work of installing them. Really, a blessing in disguise, that we discovered the problem soon enough to still be here, where Eddie could make light work of this task.

On note of the rig, I would like to say an incredibly big thank you to Chuck Gates, without whose incredible generosity, there would be neither boat nor rig. Chuck, what you have made possible for me with regard to this race is immense, and I cannot tell you enough how grateful I am - not only for the support, but for your vote of confidence!

US SPARS have also been really supportive and informative in helping us customize this rig - and of course - without Eddie's meticulous work, and all the thought, time and effort that he has put into it, this rig would still just be a tube and a bunch of cables lying on the ground. I've said it before, but I will say it again: there could not have been a better person than Eddie Arsenault to be doing this refit!

We're imminently going to be doing sea-trials - and of course, there's no sailing a sailboat without sails. As we have started out with a brand, new rig, the old sails were not necessarily going to fit the new rig anymore. While the mast height and boom length have remained exactly the same, certain things have changed: we have added a Harken furling system to the forestay, which means altering the foresail to fit a furling foil.

Also, the mainsail track is no longer the same as the old one, and the old main was looking a bit sad.

Thanks to John Danly, we now have a full compliment of sails that will fit Minnehaha's rig. John, a former professional sailmaker from the Eastern shore of Maryland, very kindly and generously sourced and altered second-hand sails, that were in very good condition.

The mainsail was donated by Stan and Sally Honey off their Cal 40 in California, from where John's sister went to the effort of having the sails shipped to John in Maryland. John altered the sail there and sent it along with another foresail, staysail and spinnaker. John, I cannot thank you enough as well as Mr. Coolidge who helped coordinate the logistics! The sails are great, and will be really good for the interim passages leading up to the race!

Sandy MacMillan from the North loft in Lunenburg has also been incredibly helpful and willing to offer plenty of advice, and his loft will be putting a wire luff into the code 0 that came with the boat, and is still in mint condition, as well as putting a luff tape into the old foresail."

Work is still ongoing, getting finer details sorted, like making sure that all lockers can be secured, fitting lee-cloths, installing jammers and cleats on the mast, lazy-jacks etc. And not to mention the ongoing clean-up of Darren’s shop that housed Minnehaha throughout the refit, where we made dust for so many months and distributed tools and spares all over the shop! Choosing which spares and tools to have on board, and which unnecessary things to do away with in itself takes thought and time. Then there is the task of making sure that all necessary equipment, charts etc. are on board. Some of the equipment I need for an ocean passage, includes EPIRB, satellite phone and tracking device – all things that need to be sourced and then delivered – not to mention funded somehow! So, slowly we are getting all the bits and pieces together, and moving closer towards a departure.

Minnehaha is looking as good and as rugged as I could have wished for – in fact, she much surpasses what I could have wished for! The prospect of a passage is certainly an exciting one! However, after all these months on the island and amongst the people who have treated me so incredibly kindly and have really made me to feel part of the family, it is going to be strange to leave. I look back often on the time that I have spent here, and over the changes of season that I have been able to live through here, and I marvel at how incredibly lucky and blessed I am, to have landed on Prince Edward Island; to meet such incredible friends, who would help me along the way in the manner that they have.

To have been able to work on Minnehaha with my own two hands and learn all about her, to be able to work with, and learn from someone who is as skilled, creative, patient and humourous as Eddie Arsenault is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime privilege, that I would not have wanted to miss for anything! To have been taken up with such generosity and just like a family member by Darren and Susan Cousins to the extent that I feel exactly as at home in their house as I would in my own, is to gain a second family! To have had the unwavering support, encouragement and friendship of Arleigh Hudson, (not to mention her car!) for all these months, is gaining a life-long friend! The support, labor and friendship of Raymond, Peter and Albert Arsenault has been consistent throughout. I would also like to say a very big thank you to Alicia, Nic and Danny, who have made an awesome logistics team, and have been willing to jump in and help at any and all times of the night!

And there have been many other people who have been a part of this and have contributed towards making this possible including Jim and Sandal Keefe who gifted a beautiful, handmade quilt for my bunk, Eric deDoes who reached out with a generous offer of safety knives made especially for Minnehaha by his company Plante’s Bouy Sticks and Jon Johansen who has been tirelessly sharing our news with his followers at Maine Coastal News. Minnehaha and I will certainly take a very large part of Prince Edward Island with us - I have hung a print of the Confederation Bridge, on the bulkhead, and I know that looking at this print and thinking of the islanders and of the incredibly rich time I have had here – of the people and memories, will be a great source of motivation and encouragement…

But we have not left yet, and there still remains a bit of work to be done! In between the work, I will treasure all the moments here, that still remain to me - in and amongst the beautiful autumn colours that have started to transform the landscape, and serve as a reminder that the winter is approaching and that time is ticking…

Kirsten

If you would like to support Kirsten’s journey please visit her GoFundMe account or contribute directly via PayPal.

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Recent Press:

Many thanks to the following outlets for their interest in Kirsten’s journey! Click on the links below to check out Kirsten’s latest interviews.

Yachting Monthly - Feature

Yachting Monthly - General GGR Article

On the Wind Sailing Podcast

SABBAX/Boating South Africa

Classic Boat

Three Oaks High School Students of the Marine Diploma Program

Please contact aliciabiggart@gmail.com for media inquiries.

The holidays are rapidly approaching - here’s your chance to support Kirsten AND get some gifts out of the way by heading to the Kirsten GGR merch store. All profits from the shirts and hoodies go to funding Kirsten’s race preparation.

Kirsten is one of two South Africans participating in the Golden Globe 2022, and currently the only female entrant. Kirsten has been sailing dinghies since her childhood, but sailing since 2006 as a profession. From sailing training to sailboat deliveries, she built a diverse set of skills and experience. In 2015, she began working for Skip Novak on his Pelagic Expeditions to South Georgia, The Antarctic Peninsula, Patagonia and the Falklands.

About the race: The Golden Globe Race 2022 is a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation. This retro race is based on the first solo circumnavigation race that took place in 1968. In order to stay true to the original circumnavigation, boats are all older designs, no bigger than 36 foot- and modern navigational technology, like GPS, is not permitted. Instead Kirsten need to depend on her skills in celestial navigation and dead reckoning. The route for the race is France, down the Atlantic, east-about the Southern Ocean, and back up the Atlantic to France- an approximate distance of 30,000 nautical miles and anywhere from 7 to 9 months or more at sea.