Atlantic Adventure
Hello! my name is Jamie, i'm a 27 year old Architect from Bristol, UK. I have just qualified and am about to embark on an adventure to cross the Atlantic in celebration - this has long been my dream and if i have no luck on here finding a place to crew you will most likely see me bumping around various marina's in southern Europe / Las Palmas!
Currently in Bristol i plan to start hitchhiking south next weekend towards Faro / Gibraltar. There I hope to find a boat to the Canary islands and then onwards over the Atlantic - i am very flexible on the final destination - for me this is more about the challenge of crossing the open ocean! I like to think i'm quite an easy going guy, i find it easy to adapt to a certain social dynamic and can fully appreciate a good 5 hour conversation or likewise just blissful silence (i have hitchhiked over 50 countries and have learnt the importance of judging the situation!).
My friends often say i live many lives (i see it all as one, though some people feel they have to be a certain 'character'?). I've hitchhiked to China and India from the UK - sleeping rough the whole way. Last year i brought a little 3m rowing boat and drifted down the Nile in Egypt on my own for 300 miles. I've hitched to Africa a few times, to the arctic circle, round east Europe. Spent a few summers working in Mumbai and Hong Kong. Yet i don't really see myself as the typical bum traveler - it took me 8 hard years to qualify as an architect and i now run my own company in Bristol - i believe in making the most of life in all aspects! I still prefer the feeling of falling asleep under the stars than paying £20 for a hostel, even though money is not to much of a problem these days (i was lucky enough to save up and buy a house a few years ago).
I have sailed all my life, my family has owned a slightly run down Moody 346 for the past 30 years. The longest period i spent on the yacht was about 4 months so i am not a stranger to cosy living (this was only coastal mind you). Although over the years i have done hundreds of smaller trips i have never done a bigger hop than perhaps 500nm. As i have grown up around boats (my Dad is a yacht master) i never felt the need to get a formal yachting qualification, I am however a qualified RYA dinghy instructor. That being said I am very conformable in many aspects from braving force 8 storms off the bow at 3am to replacing impella pumps on an old engine - nothing like a good challenge. I have skippered our family boat with novice friends for 6 week periods and this year even spent 3 days sailing back to the nearest harbor with no engine after a rather unnerving fire - i am looking for a boat for this voyage that preferably wont catch fire.
There are a few reasons i'm doing this. There is something special about the ocean and i have always dreams of crossing the Atlantic - just seeing nothing but the curve of the horizon for 3 weeks must be a humbling experience! I am also eager to progress towards my Yacht Masters and would appreciate if my log book can be signed. It would also be perfect if someone could teach me to navigate in the traditional way! Of course i have no issue using GPS - but its nice to know its not completely relied upon!
This is also part of my long ambition to hitchhike round the world (all be it my commitments at home have meant i can't do it in one hop i have spent the last 10 years piecing together different trips). When i was 17 a friend said 'you can not hitchhike any more - society is not trusting enough!' - i bet him a fiver i could see the whole world on nothing but the good will of people ...
Naturally of course though i am more than happy to pay my share for the provisions and marina fees, what ever that may be. I am also open to even contributing towards equipment / maintenance of the boat if it was a deal breaker (at the very least i will pull more than my own weight - i have a good nack for scrubbing Barnacle's off the undersides!, no problem with cooking, haven't been sea sick since i was a child, pretty handy with maintenance, can handle a reef in a force 8, very good at putting out fires and thanks to my sisters habit of sleeping i have had a lot of practice doing the entire night watch... ).
I would just say however that i really would prefer not to just give over 'cash' per day that goes into your pocket, rather we can split the shops, marina fees, supplies etc as we pay them. I want to be an equal crew member - not a client!
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