Brian Blue Bear 2012

[sheila]

Started a new thread for you Brian!

Just wanted to wish you and Sue a very happy New Year. You may already be celebrating, wherever you are at present.

We look forward to hearing the 2012 continuing adventures.

Stay safe.

Love from Sheila & Vince

[louiseishtar]

Same here from Martin & Louise.
All the very best for 2012

[allan]

Sue and Brian, rest assured we will be raising a couple of glasses of Wales' finest tonight and drinking to your continued health, safety and adventure.
Allan

[Deleted]

Hey Brian Hope all is well and sunny days in front of you, look forward to hearing bout your adventures, happy new year to you both. Nipper

[Cardiff Yacht Club]

Any idea where they are?

[sheila]

I had a pm from Nipper (Brian's son) just this morning - he has not heard anything from them since before Christmas

[sheila]

Apologies to Nipper, who advised me today that he is Brian's brother, not his son, but still no news. We do hope that they are alright.

[Martyn & Sarah]

Hi Brian and Sue
Hope you are both well and safe. Wales beat England at Twickenham and looking good for the championship or maybe grandslam! that should make you smile.
Martyn and Sarah

[Deleted]

Hi everyone seeking a little help I am, my parents bri an sue of blue bear have not been in contact now for sometime and everyone is getting a little worried at home. Last time I spoke to my dad was the 20th of dec and basic jist of the conversation was that he would be out of contact for around 3 months but reading his last post on here he says 8days/ 2 months. So am a bit concerned. Would appreciate some advice please

[allan]

All of us that know Brian, Sue and Blue Bear are confident that they are OK.
Martin and I have started making efforts to find out where they are. Around the world there are a number of what are called radio nets, these are groups of people some on yachts and some on land. At a set time every day they talk to each other using radios which are powerful enough to cross oceans. Although Blue Bear does not have this type of radio, I have contacted two radio nets who have made announcements asking if anyone sees Blue Bear could they report back. So far we have heard nothing but it an enormous area so I'm not surprised.
I have been following a blog of someone else who is sailing a similar route. They left Galapagos later and are on a much faster yacht. The weather they have had has been quite light winds most of the way.
Martin and I will continue to do what we can and report back what we find.
Allan

[Deleted]

Thanks allan. I believe that they are ok but there's still that's little worried so thanks for the reasureance

[sheila]

I have to say that I am glad to know that you, Allan & Martin are making some enquiries. I am confident that all is OK, no news is good news, however I well understand that Brian & Sue's family could well be getting a bit anxious.

Also, it is important that we pass on to Brian & Sue that they have won the Joshua Slocum prize this year!

[sheila]

Another of our club members, Andrew, sent a link to a worldwide cruisers forum today, Noontide I think it is called. Allan is going to investigate and see if he can post something on there, someone might have some news of them.

[allan]

I have put a post on Noontide as well as a few other cruiser fora. If I hear anything on my daily checks I will let everyone know.
Martin and I have been chatting about their plans and the comment they may be out of touch for up to three months could mean that they were considering heading for New Zealand. Panama to NZ is over 7000nm. Given that weather reports from the area are quite benign, Blue Bear, which is similar to Chausey, would average around 70-80nm per day. So 100 days (end of March) is not too long.
We also have to consider that many of the places they are likely to visit have little or no communications or internet. Pretty much the only way to contact anyone would be by SSB, ham radio or satphone.
Allan

[allan]

I have just heard from the sailor in the catamaran that Blue Bear has just arrived at Hiva Oa which is in French Polynesia.
If/when I hear more, I will post it on here.
Allan

[ishtar]

If confirmed, this is fantastic news. Chuffed to bits to hear this. I've tentatively added Blue Bear to the 2011 cruising chart if anyone wants to see how far they've travelled....

maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=215080609010201446798.00049a305bad0db79d66c&ll=43.197167 ,5.449219&spn=55.870493,112.324219&z=3

[allan]

It is now confirmed!
Allan

[Cardiff Yacht Club]

From Brian's Facebook site:

Brian Cox
Arrived Hiva Oa After a very long time 2 MONTHS OVERDUE must be close to a record no proper internet connection yet?


Very best wishes to the both of you, and congratulations on a mammoth crossing. If Wales beat France on Saturday, I propose we rename French Polynesia to 'Welsh Polynesia' in your honour!

[Cardiff Yacht Club]

In case you didn't see it, this is me receiving the Tony Burris Ocean award on your behalf last weekend, Brian and Sue. We are all in awe of your achievements, and this was for your Atlantic crossing!

[ishtar]

From 'TCM' on another site, with thanks:

From TCM..

Matts SatPhone number / email available by PM for anyone who wants to contact Blue Bear direct form me / stingo / webcraft / zefender etc

"Brian and Sue need to know the name of their latest grandchild born back in January if poss..."

"Hiva Oa, Autona anchorage Thursday evening local, almost 6am friday GMT

Walked into town for the check in at the gendamerie by way of restaurant for steak and garden salad lunch, and find a sun-battered couple at a payphone outside the post office. They're jabbering away in a foreign language...which turns out to be Welsh. I take a reasonable guess and say "Blue Bear!" - they finish their telecon and come over to chat.

Blue Bear is a Moody 33, Brian and Sue Cox have sailed it from Cardiff in the UK, over the Atlantic (in around hurricane-risky September) and then set off from Panama on December 20th (at the start of cyclone season) arriving 3900ish miles to here just yesterday evening. No histrionics whatsoever, lots of smiles and giggles from Sue, and meanwhile Brian's a bit embarrassed it took so long, should have taken different decisions, different routes perhaps and so on - but pleased they're here at last.
Luckily they'd over-stocked on food as they knew it was expensive in French Polynesia. There were whales, and poor winds, and no winds, the hull became covered in goose barnacles costing them 2knots or more, adverse currents which at one time returned to the same place they'd been five days earlier - except they now had no diesel, with the final days sailing at often less than one knot.

They are in remarkably good shape considering that they've been at sea for - not sure exactly and neither are they - 85days? Wow!! The longest i've been at sea is 18days - their trip took almost five times longer. A friend who has crossed the Atlantic twenty times to my ten once took 38 days - but Blue Bear's recent marathon was over TWICE that. Yet Brian is not particularly proud of how long took. No satphone, no SSB, limited vhf as the batteries slowly died.

I invited them over for a few beers on Mo', and heard their stories of running out of diesel, running out of sugar, teabags, coffee, anything not tinned, more and more stuff on and on - but always in good spirits.

For me and i expect for many others, it's hardly the issue that there are boats making the same trip in under a month. Planes take a few hours, so what? They reached their destination - and are in better shape, better spirits, with better attitude and everything - than some crews who stay at sea on an ocean crossing taking just two or three weeks. I think theirs is a fabulous fabulous achievement requiring huge reserves of physical and mental stamina, and perhaps its magnitude will take time to dawn on them.
This evening I repeatedly insisted they they should be pretty dang proud of being at sea for very long - and yet finish with the easy, self-effacing and smiling attitude of a couple who have -oops, entirely our fault - taken a little too long over a one-hour rowing-boat jaunt on Roath Park Lake, all that way back in Cardiff.

Hurrah for Blue Bear! An example to us all."

[allan]

I had just cut the above from Mojomo's blog to post on here but Martin beat me to it.
It can't be stressed enough what a fantastic thing Sue and Brian have achieved. Matt, who wrote the blog above is the guy in the catamaran I spoke of before. He has sailed across the Atlantic about a dozen times, on Mojomo, which is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and equipped with the latest comms. He is now going around the world and is obviously impressed with what Blue Bear has achieved.
Sue and Brian have done this trip the "old fashion way". I cannot expressed how much I am in awe of what they have done and how proud I am to say they are friends of mine.
Allan

[sheila]

I've got a lump in my throat reading that. Hurrah indeed to them, and thank heavens that they are safe and well above all. I am sure their family is feeling so relieved.
Many congratulations Brian & Sue, we are all so proud of you.

[spidercrab]

Good detective work and great to hear they have reached land.

French Polynesia must be the most beautiful place on the planet.

[simpleered]

Thankyou Martin and Allan for these reports of Blue Bear, Brian and Sue.Glad to hear they are safe and well.Everyone at The Cardiff Yacht Club are in awe at their achievements.Well done Brian and ; Sue. Brian King. ;D ;D ;D

[brian (Blue Bear)]

Well!!! Two months overdue Panama to Hiva Oa French Polynisia a trip which should have taken 30 days approx took about 90. we tried to sail the 3600miles mostly North of the Equator to avoid the Cyclone and storm systems which develop during December to April which worked for the first 1000 miles with a powerful WNW current but we met very poor sailing conditions when trying to cross the Equator no wind for days then only south westerly winds added to by a Northerly or Current which would occasionally run north East in line with the Winds we used all of our diesel trying to get far enough south to pick up the South easterly trade winds and westerly currents but were unsuccessful we got 30 miles or half a degree south of the equator but light winds and currents forced me back north of the equator to a point we had passed five days previous.... we were unable to get good winds until 5 degrees south having run out of Diesel this was accomplished at speeds of less than 1 knot even the last few miles took several days the last 10 miles took more than a day almost 2 will write more ASAP...

[louiseishtar]

Brian and Sue you are absolute heroes and your attitude and sense of adventure is awe inspiring. I can't wait to hear the full account and hopefully seeing some photos. congratulations on the latest addition to the family too.
Best wishes
Louise

[ishtar]

Grand Slam, Bri.

It's been a fantastic couple of days.

[allan]

They are planning to leave Hiva Oa today or tomorrow but can only get 40ltrs of diesel.
Allan

[Cardiff Yacht Club]

I'm sure they'll post once they've crossed the bay to fuel up. It's a bit like Cardiff, only the bay is 900 miles, or so........

[brian (Blue Bear)]

Writing about our pacific crossing I felt would be a difficult one, Benign weather, calm seas, Day after day north of the Equator light northeasterly winds and westerly Currents .south of the Equator light South easterly backing Easterly winds as we sail west again with westerly Currents with a small area the ITCZ separating them how could we get it wrong we could drift across with no bother..........

We Left Panama in December a few weeks into the cyclone season, with no real concern for adverse weather since we could avoid such weather by staying close to the equator or staying North of the Equator. We chose to travel parallel with the Equator at around 3 to 5 degrees north which became a big mistake, for a few reasons the most annoying for us was between Panama and the most western point of the Colon ridge trying to move south even under motor in the area of the ridge was pretty much impossible with Currents running north or north west at speeds greater than 2 1/2 Knots at times.

The ever present south westerly winds also hampered our attempts... after a few attempts under sail and motor to move south to the more favorable winds we were forced to change tactics and follow the currents and sail close to the wind a Magnetic course of around 260 to 280 degrees which was translated to around 270 to 300 degrees over ground.

As the currents got stronger and winds lighter this changed to over 330degrees a tack magnetic Course of around 180 to 190 would give me around 120 to 170 over ground sailing east from our destination, tack for these distances will take for EVER!! worse than Sailing against the Tide in the lower Bristol Channel.

We had to find westerly currents and The Easterly or south Easterly winds mentioned in all Pacific crossing Guides we had read, what is the point of keeping Diesel if we are to run out of food.

We gambled that if we motored to south of the equator we would find more favorable conditions. we motor sailed south in winds that were now slightly more westerly than south westerly a perfect time sometimes giving us more than 7 Knots, but even after getting south of the equator still northerly currents and South westerly winds against us.

We had to keep motoring using all our main tank of Diesel when we were south of the Equator because the currents were now Northerly and winds light pushing us back to the North, after much thought we decided to stop the motor and keep our reserve supply and try to hold Position South of the Equator

Any wind changes would help us further south where we are bound to find South easterly winds after all they are TRADE WINDS but we didn’t we by now were well into our second month and less than half way to our destination.

The food stores were starting to look low there was an obvious risk of a food Shortage, But Hey!!! we will find the Currents and trade winds.

It will only take up to 8 days from a halfway point it is like riding on an Escalator as mentioned in one cruising Guide Start the Engine use the reserve diesel keeping 20 litres back for emergency maneuvering and electricity to get south, again we motored south with no winds until we ran out of diesel.

That’s it now!! If we don’t get the trade winds we’ll be sailing/ Drifting North west or sailing south east, South east which was Much slower No advantage from the still strong currents 1 to 1 1/2 knots but it was more south towards our much needed Trade winds, we tried it until the winds died completely the Northerly current carried us back over the equator to a point sarcastically close to where we had started our engine and used all our Diesel 5 days earlier.......

This was the Point where the serious situation we were in became our dominating thought. check the water food gas etc we had enough for another few weeks the gas was already due to run out I had not stocked up on gas how we would manage with some of our foods such as rice if the gas runs out...........we can still do it......

From Experience, north westerly currents above the equator run at around a Knot or more winds are greater so although it is the wrong direction we will get a much greater GPS closing speed at least for a time but we still had almost 2000miles to go so we headed as close to the wind as Our boat would sail and aided by the currents made speeds of around 4 knots CLOSING speed of around 3 knots less than half of what we needed to arrive before running out of food.

So we reduced the rations we would give ourselves, as we moved North west things slowly got better we picked up speeds and winds Backed so we could now sail South west but still slowly but at least in the right direction until we again ran out of wind, a little madness slipped in.

“NO way” while I had fuel would I drift back as We did a few weeks ago. we used our last 20 litres to motor south west at least if we were pushed north again we would still have gained a westerly advantage stopped the engine when the Needle rested on the E still a little fuel left which would serve no advantage to use here we drifted west with very light southerly winds giving us 0.8 Knots closing speed we had calculated our arrival time at our destination was much more than another month, so we reduced our rations again which were now running out anyway...

Catching fish now became a necessity If we were to eat well, a fish a tin of vegetables and a packet of Spinach soup would last 2 to 3 days greatly improving the expected time our food would last, Couldn’t make it last longer it would begin to taste sour, because of the Gas shortage it was cooked briefly then not re heated, we had to be a little careful no doctors here.

We also still had rice which we could mix with packet soups and curry powder added to make a curry and rice flavoured meal occasionally a fish would also give the meal some substance but fishing was now becoming harder even with steel mono traces we still lost a few lures and the ones we had left were rusting away......

As we moved slowly south things did improve but at around 6 degrees south we still had speeds of less than two Knots then some good steady winds giving us 4 knots by the time we reached 9degrees South the winds which had become constant in speed and Direction soul distroyingly disappeared as we came closer to the land, it took around a day and a half for the last 8 miles to the Harbor leading lights.

A mile offshore I restarted the engine it started and with Sue ready to drop the anchor when the Fuel finally ran out we entered the Harbor in the dark under power 60 days late having literally tacked into a Southwesterly headwind for most of the 4000ish miles.

Still had 1 tin of tuna 4 tins of beans and one cup of rice a few stock cubes and a litre of cooking oil left entering the Harbor we ate the tuna,rice and one can of beans that evening good thing we did not have to spend another 3 days aboard with only beans left It would be Intolerable....

will try to add a few Photos when we have better internet.