Crossing an Ocean in a Seawind 24

One day while I was sitting out on the deck of our boat enjoying the sunset, a guy in a dinghy came by and said that he crewed on a Seawind 24 from San Francisco to Tahiti. At first I didn't believe him because I have done lots of research on these boats and never heard of this adventure. But he was adamant and went on to say that the boat did great and handled the seas well. It took them 54 days to do the trip. Unfortunately he was in a bit of a hurry and I didn't get more info than that but he did shout back that Multihulls Magazine did a series of articles on the trip back in the nineties under the title "Adventures of a Seawind  24".

I contacted Multihulls and enquired about the story. Eric Erwin from Multihulls wrote back and confirmed the story and kindly offered to scan and send the articles to me as they were not available in digital format. I have not yet received the copies but he sent me some information and the dates when the articles were published. Some of the magazines are available on ebay if anyone is interested in buying these back issues. I will however edit and credit and share excerpts from the articles should I receive them from Multihulls.

Below are the magazine dates with some information:

 

MM May/June 1997 – 

Adventures of a Seawind 24

A family of four, makes their first transpacific crossing.

MM July/August 1997 –

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part II - Outfitting a Small Cat for a BIG Voyage

By Judy Jacobs and Mihaly Kun

Over the period of 2 1/2 months, Mihaly disassembled, waterproofed, and strengthened his small catamaran. The sails, electrical system, and electronics were all upgraded. He replaced the stove, trampoline, beds and engine, while adding a lot more other equipment. This outfitting process seemed next to impossible, Mihaly would soon find out.

 Mihály Kun is coping with lack of room on a 24-foot Seawind catamaran during his family’s circumnavigation. Unlike on luxury cruising catamarans, space is at a premium and the weight of items is critical.

MM Sept/Oct 1997 –

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part III – San Francisco to Tahiti... Crossing the Pacific

by Judy Jacobs and Mihály Kun

It’s not smooth sailing for Mihály and Roby as they journey from California’s Morro Bay, through the doldrums, and eventually arrive in Rangiroa.

MM Nov/Dec 1997 – 

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part IV

MM Jan/Feb 1998 –

Adventures of a Seawind 24, Part V

by Mihály Kun

In part five, the saga of this intrepid sailor takes us from Samoa to Tokelau. Read about the tale of the Ghost Island, and the lure of the master fishermen.
Women on Atafu are busy dividing a shipment of chicken, while others play dominoes.
The only time this beach cat has actually been beached was on the island of Nukufetau, in the country of Tuvalu.

MM March/April 1998 – 

Adventures of a Seawind 24: Part VI – Atafu to Tarawa

by Judy Jacobs and Mihály Kun

The family’s long journey abroad comes to an abrupt end in Tarawa, when the youngest son, Jeremy, is run down by a distracted bus driver.

 

 

The Hurricane Plan

The 2013 hurricane season is already with us and although not many damaging hurricanes have crossed the Florida Keys it is really important to be prepared. We have poled local knowledge and formulated a plan for the boat and for us should one of these storms come our way.

We asked a guy who has been here at Islamorada for 15 years if he stays on his boat during a hurricane and he said he did it once and would never do it again. Others who have not yet experienced one said they would stay on board if they could get far enough into the mangroves. The official opinion here is "DO NOT STAY ON THE BOAT". We have decided that if it is a minor tropical storm we will tie up in a nearby channel and stay with the boat but for a strong tropical storm or hurricane we plan to tuck our little Seawind 24 up a narrow gap in the mangroves about a mile from our present anchorage and leave. We have spoken to a local resort and we can get a room there for cat 1 & 2 hurricanes. Larger storms require that everyone evacuate to the mainland anyway.

The plan is to remove all our valuables, including passports, cameras, computers, electronics, etc. and stow everything else inside. We can then tie up to the surrounding mangroves with all the rope we have and head for our room on land. If it is forecast to be a cat 3 or more we will also drop the mast and lash it to the deck. Hopefully the boat will still be there in one piece when we return.

As far as survival supplies is concerned we are just following the locally recommended list which is basically food and water for 3 days and various other equipment needed if the power and communications are out for an extended period. Being off the grid and independent already, life on the boat has, by its nature, prepared us for surviving without outside help for a while. I hope we do not have to test our preparedness but if we do I will post an update on how well it worked.

While on the subject of weather I thought I would just post a recent pic of a waterspout we saw from the boat.

   
Next: I met a guy who sailed a Seawind 24 from San Francisco to Tahiti........