Shipping Eventide
Eventide took a boat trip from Mexico to Canada. How did this come about?
When we set about planning our adventure abroad Eventide we had several potential itineraries. We could go south to Central America. We could continue to French Polynesia. We could explore Mexico. All of them were clear in their south and west-ness. But the big question was how to get back to the Pacific Northwest.
The green line represents our general path south. The red lines show some of the options to sail back.
The weather in the eastern Pacific makes south and west journeys relative straightforward affairs - you run deep down wind or on a reach for thousands of miles. (It is of course not quite that simple, just look back at the previous blog posts to get a flavor.) Heading home is trickier as that same wind that pushed you is now going to fight you.
Our basic choices were either to sail back via Hawaii (or some similarly distance point on the western side of the Pacific High), sell Eventide, or ship her back. That’s right, we put Eventide on top of a freighter which gave her a lift from Mexico to Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.
It’s amazing that shipping a big sailboat is even an option. The company we worked with puts together runs from Florida, through the Panama Canal, and up the West Coast of the US to Canada. They rent a medium sized freighter that usually caries containers or bulk cargo and has its own cranes on board. They then plan stops and drop offs along the way based on demand. They don’t stop on the US West Coast, rather hop scotch it, from Ensenada, BC, Mexico, to Victoria / Nanaimo, BC, Canada. They only stop in one US port due to Jones Act requirements that most ships do not meet, so typically they start in a US port in Florida and then everything else happens outside the US.
Our plan was to catch a ride in June and then spend the last months of summer in British Columbia, but international shipping intervened. As this is not a super regular run, the ship doesn’t start the journey till it is essentially full for most of the time. So our ship, the AAL Gibraltar, didn’t leave Florida till the very end of June. It then got stuck at the Panama Canal as historic low lake levels reduced throughput at the locks.
We ended up having essentially a whole extra month in Mexico, as we loaded Eventide on July 15th. The extension wasn’t clean, as the date sort of drifted slowly towards mid-July. But we enjoyed the time. The Baja got hot, even more empty, but the water got clear and the fishing spectacular. Hurricanes and Tropical Storms started forming (new hurricane plan filed with insurance!). In the final weeks, we took the time to visit Mexico City and explore La Paz.
Eventide getting a lift up
But the loading day did actually arrive. We watched the AAL Gibraltar like kids watching the Santa Tracker. We all went down to the malceon in La Paz to watch it enter the harbor. We prepared the boat by taking down sails, emptying tanks, cleaning below decks, and securing everything we could tie down. It took a couple of days to do it all. We worked through our Mexican paperwork to ensure a clean and legal exit of the country. And then it was finally loading day.
Loading a 45,000 pound sailboat on to a 525 foot long freighter that is already filled with boats is nervous making to say the least. On our appointed day, we pulled out of La Paz in 100 degree heat, and headed to first check out of customs. After clearing the necessary checks, we headed to the freighter, which was at anchor. Coordinating via WhatsApp, we circled while watching them load a Cape Dory, before pulling up ourselves.
With almost every fender we had out, we pulled up along side the freighter and worked to get her lifted. We dropped the backstays as a massive crane swung an I-beam carrying the slings to within inches of the mast. A diver checked the sling placement under the water and then up she went.
Eventide took pole position on the bow, being one of the last boats loaded. I can’t say for sure, but it felt like 100 feet off the water. The crane swung her forward and around and then a well-coordinated team slowly lowered her into position and secured her to the deck. As this is not the full-time job of this freighter, the supports are welded to the deck for each boat. Fourteen lashings extend out like a spider web attaching the boat to strong points.
And then we pulled away. The whole process took a few hours. (If you have kids, the freighter is no place for them. It has many hazards.) We left our home riding high. We all felt a lump in our throats as we took the launch and began a couple weeks of itinerant travel.
After spending time in Washington, DC visiting family we headed back west, flying to Seattle and then taking a sea plane to Victoria, BC. It was the first seaplane flight any of us had taken and it was pretty awesome. We were in awe the whole time, pointing out places we had been on the boat and enjoying the gorgeous Pacific Northwest scenery.
We caught sight of the AAL Gibraltar and Eventide as it passed Victoria to pick up its pilot.
Congestion in Victoria meant that ship re-routed to Nanaimo. And then a small fuel spill in Nanaimo meant it took an extra couple of days. Communication wasn’t great so we were left juggling plans. We enjoyed a scenic drive and a night in Nanaimo before finally meeting the ship.
Our position on the boat meant we were dead last to be dropped. We could easily see the ship on the waterfront and watched as boats slowly got offloaded, waiting for our turn. We boarded the Gibraltar, now dockside, to prepare Eventide for the drop and just check her our. I managed to use the time to replace the shaft zinc as well, why not?
At 10 PM, watching from a C Tow captain’s boat, we saw her get lifted up and pirouetted around. The load master checked her over, waved us over, and then climbed off to finish cleaning up the Gibraltar. While the kids slept in the hotel room, we opened the seacocks and started her up. We slipped off and headed for a slip at the Nanaimo Port Authority docks in the dark.
Eventide getting lifted off the AAL Gibraltar at 10 PM
It’s miraculous that this all worked out. We have spent the last few days re-commissioning and getting ready to head north for a few weeks before returning to Seattle. Shipping is messy and prone to delays, but Eventide is back in home waters after venturing far afield.