Introduction of our adventure

 

After a scenic day transiting the inland waterways of the Netherlands as well as the huge industrial port of Rotterdam the five person crew aboard Archimedes said farewell to our friends from Elling Shipbuilding and in a small ceremony on board, took down the Dutch flag and the builder’s temporary registration numbers and hoisted the United States ensign - thus officially starting the 3,495 nautical mile homeward journey.

With such an ambitious itinerary - crossing the Arctic Circle and calling at ports within the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland - it was only fitting for us to depart ahead of a deepening low and advancing gale. Fortune was on our side and we arrived into Lowestoft, UK in driving rain and building seas around 2am - but still well ahead of the worst weather.

All voyages start somewhere - with a spark that becomes an idea that turns into a plan. This one is no different. The spark was the search for the perfect boat and the plan was how to get it home. Living on a small island in the USA boating is a way of life - a necessity - the only way to the mainland, a form of recreation - and adventure as well.

Liam (L), Jennifer (M) and Philippe (R). 

It’s hard to say where this adventure truly started but it was likely mid October, 2022 while out on a late fall kayak adventure talk turned to larger boats and distant harbors. The now owner of Archimedes (The Elling E6 we are crossing the Atlantic on) and myself started musing over the perfect boat. Something large enough to be comfortable but small enough not to need multiple professional crew. A family boat that could be equally at home on afternoon picnics or week long adventures. After some online sleuthing we stumbled across the small Dutch yard called Elling.

They build two boats - a smaller E3/E4 and the larger (65’ 19.8m) E6. On paper the E6 looked perfect - maybe more boat than we initially sought, but one that left room to grow and truly ticked all the possible boxes - ocean crossing endurance, self righting design, the ability to cruise at displacement speeds over 6,000nm but with a semi displacement max speed of over 20 knots. There was already a whole suite of safety features built into the boats - like a backup engine and system redundancies that really appealed to us.

So, without much further thought we booked plane tickets to the Netherlands to check one out in person. The boat didn’t disappoint and purchase papers were signed. By then we had the idea in our minds of coming home with it via the Arctic. The crew had already signed up - the Owners (Philippe and Jennifer), their son (Liam), myself (Nakomis) and my soon to be fiancé (Haley).

Nakomis & Haley

Haley is the science teacher at the small school on the island where we all live and Liam is a student there so our schedule was pretty straightforward from the start - leave after the school year ended.

I traveled many times between the US and the shipyard over the winter to check on the progress of the many small adjustments we made to the vessel at the Elling shipyard to make sure all would be as near to perfect as possible for the intended 3,495 mile journey back to the US. We added multiple electronics, anchoring options and water making capability just to list a few of the extras.

Haley and myself attended an Arctic cruising seminar in the UK early March and for the past few months route planning and boat preparations have totally consumed my mind. I think it would be foolhardy to say one was ever totally prepared for an adventure like this but we have tried to engineer every practical redundancy or contingency into the boat and our plans. I’m excited for all who read this to follow along on this Blog and we will try to be regular with updates and pictures. I’m sure we will learn many lessons along the way as well and we will do our best to share those as well.

Nakomis.