Capt. Edward Jerbic emj_mail@mac.com

Retrospect - back in California

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 15:16:35 -0800

Home from New York and and fighting some kind of respiratory infection. One of my crew was diagnoses with pneumonia upon arrival in New York. I think I may not be far behind. Arrived home just in time for the storm of the year on January 4th. Turned out to be a fifty-year event with winds to 75 mph.

Between the storms, I had some piloting work for San Francisco Dry Dock which keep my skills sharp. Always putting big boats in small places as shown below. This 300 ft. Army LSV ( Logistics Support Vessel ) can carry twenty eight M-1 army tanks.

More photos of piloting work in San Francisco Bay can be found on my photos page.

Getting back to FREEDOM
Looking back through this journal I have a greater appreciation of the the ground we covered given the time constraints. The blog breaks the trip up into digestible segments. This is how I approached it as well. The entire voyage can be a hard to swallow on a boat so small and slow. So, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The immensity of the trip immediately becomes more palatable.

The highlights were definitely on the Pacific side. We had very little weather of any kind to complain about. Each day south just got better. The marine life never stopped entertaining us.. Dolphins by the dozens, sea turtles, humpback whales game fish, jellyfish stingrays, etc. While the Atlantic side covers beautiful territory, the urgency to meet a deadline grew each day. You can have a game plan but it must allow for the unexpected. So the last quarter is usually spent making up for lost time.

I’ve expanded my knowledge of suitable ports of refuge, learned more about local weather along the route, and expanded my contacts in ports. These all add up to minimizing lay days and down time on future deliveries. Contacting agents, marinas, and fuel docks in advance of arrival saved us days. Servicing the engines in San Diego and maximizing fuel economy expanded our range giving us more options not to mention cutting our fuel costs by over 40%.

In hindsight, such a long trip (over 6500 mi.) on a vessel not designed for the open ocean with spartan, make-shift living conditions as we had may be better handled by two crews. Splitting the trip into two 20+ days may be the sensible thing to do. Fatigue is inevitable and it wears down your ability to fight illnesses, especially as you move so quickly into cold weather toward the end.

Crew consideration are important as well. 100 ton licenses these days are a dime-a-dozen. Experience is difficult to find. Lots of people would love to make a trip such as this, but capable watch-standers, who for example, can navigate unfamiliar waters, as the narrow stretches of the ICW at night, on radar, are hard to find.

Overall, it was a memorable experience and we got the job done. Inquiries regarding my services can be made by visiting my homepage.

- Peace

Day 41 - Arrival in New York

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 07:52:32 -0800

Departed Chesapeake City on the C&D Canal at 1300 catching the outgoing tide down the Delaware River to sea. My new ETA for Liberty Park Marina in Jersey City was 0900.

This was our last offshore leg along the Atlantic coast ending at the sea buoy, Ambrose Light, marking the deep water approach into New York Harbor. I intentionally planned our arrival at daybreak . We passed the sea buoy as the the sun came up. From her we followed the bar channel to the bridge.

Passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, I felt a sense of accomplishment and relief.

I couldn’t help but think of the things that could have slowed us down, but did not; mechanical problems, customs issues, bad weather, Panama Canal delays, etc.

Entering New York Harbor at daybreak was special. FREEDOM had been our home for almost a month and a half. With the last week of cold weather, thoughts now turned to moving off the vessel and into a warm hotel. We were there.

We passed the Statue of Liberty where FREEDOM will go into service on 1/1/08. With the start-up date in mind over a month ago, I had estimated that the shortest possible transit time would be 40 days, if all went perfectly. This is based on a average speed of 10 knot (about 12 mph) 24/7. San Francisco to New York via the Panama Canal covered 6550 miles. and we arrived in 41 days.
- After thoughts to follow....

Days 39 & 40 - Chesapeake City

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:00:23 -0800

wx- lows in the 30’s , highs in the 40’s ugh! To combat the cold i’ve packed life jackets around my tent for insulation. It is now my igloo.

If you don’t count the brief stop in Ft. Lauderdale for re-entry into the US, we have logged our longest transit to date. Since leaving Isla Mujeres on the 19th, we’ve logged over 1500 miles over eight days. An important stretch if we are to make our deadline in New York.

We fortunately, we faced the worst the this storm while in the safe confines of the ICW. We still have one more 12 hour run offshore from Cape May to New York . Decided to lay over in Chesapeake City, a small town along the CD shipping Canal connecting Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. We arrived at low water, but manage to push FREEDOM through the mud the last few feet to the dock. The thought of being aground only 20 ft off the dock after eight days at seas was simply unacceptable.

Arrived here at 1800 and will spend the night to allow the weather to settle down offshore. I had reports of seas to 9 feet and 30 knots of wind over the last 24 hours offshore. It was a timely stop as the entire crew was ready for a little break and a meal ashore.

We found food, spirits and warmth at the Bayard House along the banks of the CD Canal. The management and staff welcomed is warmly and were interested in our story.

There was even a small ship captain’s cottage adjacent the the Inn. I afforded my self the luxury of a night ashore and a break from my igloo. I’ll use this opportunity to update the blog before getting underway.

I now expect to arrive in New York before noon on the 29th, and it looks like we’ll have a short weather window before the next frontal system for our final transit offshore out of Cape May.

This horse can smell the barn.

Day 38 - Christmas at Sea

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:26:10 -0800

Merry Christmas from the crew of FREEDOM five miles off Cape Hattares. Seas 4-6 ft. and 20-25 kts. of wind from the Northeast. This weather system is just beginning to show it’s teeth so I played a hunch and stayed offshore a little longer to make better time. As expected, we were able to make the Chesapeake sea buoy and enter the protected waters of the ICW, Inter-Coastal Waterway, before conditions grew worse. Christmas presents come in all forms.

Onboard FREEDOM you can see the Christmas spirit. It helped to take our mind off the high seas and low temperatures. You can see the 3/4 in. plywood covering the windows of the entire main deck to help make the vessel on the open seas.

The Christmas morning sunrise was another unexpected gift.

Day 37 - Christmas Eve

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:09:04 -0800

Let’s see, what makes this Christmas Eve different from all the rest. Well, a close fly-by from Santa off Cape Canaveral the day before, for starters. Followed by a full moon rising just after sunset. We’re about three days from New York, if the weather cooperates. As it stands now, we’ll be celebrating Christmas as sea.