I assist in delivering a high performance cruiser sailing yacht (RM 1270) from Portugal to France. Along the way, I test a low cost alternative to an Iridium...

Closed Captions (CC):
well hello phantom shipmates for my

first major passage of the year 2018 I'm

being unfaithful to Isabelle my own

sailboat and I have been invited by a

professional delivery skipper to deliver

this boat right here

it's an RM 1270 from figero

the nose in portugal two eternities from

a in france which is near laurie in

france so that's about five hundred and

sixty miles so I'll be filming that and

the episodes here and there to show you

how a real this is a I guess I would

classify this as a cruising performance

boat it has a very wide Stern open stern

it's a well you can tell it's a faster

boat by just by looking at it so this

should be a lot of fun and I'll bring

you along on the trip with me and our

professional delivery skipper you know

see we'll see how it goes it should be

great fun well those waves behind me

tell a story we've been trapped here in

the game Defoe's in Portugal for three

days unable to leave because we need to

go through this narrow channel here to

get out of the port and you can see

those waves are breaking

they had a terrible accident here a few

years ago where a sailboat turned over

and there were several people who lost

their lives and including one of the

rescuers as well so they're very strict

and no vessels are allowed in or out of

this port right now except if you're

large longer than 35 metres as well as

they can fight these waves here but

certainly not a sailboat and the bad

news is with all of that is that we had

a very favorable wind that was forecast

was going to carry us north along the

Spanish coast and then across the Bay of

Biscay it was just gonna be perfect the

southern wind that was gonna just carry

us along that way and now because of

this delay of three or four days while

waiting for the waves to let us get

outside of this harbor entrance the wind

has turned the other direction the wind

will now be from the north and quite

unfavorable so we'll be beating into the

waves and it sounds like it will be a

great adventure going home let me just

show you where that is the kingdom

happen so this is Portugal here and the

coast of Spain and this is where we're

at right here if you can put the Falls

and so we're gonna go out up the coast

here around the cap finistère

lands in the Finisterre and then across

the Bay of Biscay up to here this is

where a lot 20 touched some areas

say hello to vinji Benji is the delivery

skipper with whom I'm travelling he's

got more experience than I frankly than

I ever will have in a sailboat so I'm

delighted to be on the crew good morning

we got underway about

an hour ago finally the waves against

the harbor you stopped enough to let us

out and

I just want to show you what

performance shot this

we are close hauled I mean close

reaching is 30 degrees 35 degrees maybe

30 35 degrees

there's 15 to 17 knots of true win

and

we are doing well in excess of seven

seven and a half to eight knots all the

time you so this is wow I don't see I

don't see seven and a half knots in my

boat when I close hauled ever ever some

gales of 40 45 knots in the Bay of

Biscay blew themselves out and now I've

got another window that starts today

actually later today it's going to carry

us the 430 nautical miles home with a

broad reach of between 15 and 30 knots

all the time so what I've only baklava

okay if I could eyeball bubble

these performance cruisers are quite

interesting in how they act I'm used to

when I get on performance boats to

really taking a beating in the for the

conditions to be quite Spartan inside of

them this one is very nice one of the

things I really like about this boat

this RM 1270 is you can see out looking

forward and that's great you know it's a

that is so nice to be able to look

forward from inside the cell not that I

really appreciate that

as you can see we're in quite rough

weather right now four to five meter

seas and it's not at all uncomfortable

then we've got two banks where you can

where you can sit lie down depending on

where the weather sit where the seeds

are coming from or the wind is kind of

relaxing and obviously a big forward

cabin toilets two half cabins cooking

the same as you would expect it's quite

well laid out I like having the the two

areas where you can sleep without

necessarily having to hook up a leak lot

to keep it locked ganna that makes it

quite comfortable so very wide very

spacious very comfortable and a great

view you can you don't have to stand out

sit out on the in a cockpit all the time

you can actually we had a 360 degree

view here and you can see very well so

we're fine we do

very rough weather here we've got a

single reef in and we're doing eight and

a half knots you know I'm quite

impressed

we have both a bit meh curd we have been

sailing all night long in this we're

supposed to be 15 to 20 knots and it's

been

five months

wait narts breakaways gusting wind

double reef from the main tail

because of this quo

he's

the performance boat

she arrived fairly well quite surprised

this is 26 knots a parent went 27 so

we've had all night off

that's tiring but let me show you what

this book does for that it goes between

nine and 11 knots we're surfing it goes

to even higher than felt really quickly

I'm not sure I'm quite accustomed to the

open transom which is the trend nowadays

it's a bit daunting it 2 o'clock just

but I'm sure I'd get used to it

remember I have volunteered for this

hello everyone I just wanted to do a

very quick update on something this year

I had intended to buy an iridium GO so

that I could get weather while I was at

sea and communicate but I'm never gonna

be more than two days away from land at

any time going up the North Sea and

either to the Faroe Islands or over to

them Denmark Norway so I thought why you

know the the that seemed like a rather

expensive solution although a very good

one they were ready and go so instead

another youtuber Thomas Ryan is he

mentioned that he's using this thing

this is called a Garmin and reach

Explorer and I just wanted to test it on

this trip here to see if it's a gadget

it costs four hundred and thirty five

euros and there's a which compares to an

iridium GO which costs you know you're

not going to get much much change from

eleven or twelve hundred euros for to

install a system like that with a permit

so this cost woman on 35 or so euros and

you can get a subscription that you can

cancel month by month that costs about

40 euros a month and it has lots of

things on it it was it was made for

trekkers and hikers and people who would

mountain bike so I'm not sure it wasn't

sure that was going to be worth much to

someone on a boat it has lots of little

features navigation and you can put

waypoints and routes in it but you know

you're never gonna do that you've been

to six other systems it also has an

emergency SOS button you can see right

here but you know I've got on the VHF

DSC system I've got my personal locator

beacon that I wear on it with me all the

time we've got an e perv onboard as well

and you know so I can't imagine ever

using the emergency SOS what is nice

neat on this so is here's one of the

features I don't know if you'll be able

to see this but I'm sending tracking to

a few friends and families so this is me

just starting across the Bay of Biscay

now that we've been underway now for

probably about 15 hours went all night

long and hours

that's just entering the Bay of Biscay

heading out toward anot northern France

so you can send them at any frequency

you want these little updated as the

yellow dots that hopefully you can see

then you can send text messages as well

text messages what you want to do you

don't want to type the messages into

this thing here that's something that's

something that we used to do in the

1990s it's just a nightmare

the screen is way too small forget that

so you pair it up with your iPad and you

can type your messages here

so here I've sent some messages to

friends and and that works fine I set

them and they've received them they sent

them back to me the other thing that is

of great use what I really wanted it for

is what I'm going to show you right now

is marine weather but so this is the

weather report I just asked you can type

in any latitude and longitude that you

want here where it says location there

it is it gives you the basic weather you

know but you know it tells you how many

knots you can see here 28 knots 21 knots

of wind 3 to 4 meter seas it's going to

calm down this evening but then later

it's gonna see here at 7:00 a.m. what

its gonna be and then 21 not so near

Gale conditions at this point that I

typed in which hopefully will be behind

this so we're okay

waves four meters the currents and it

takes that out for several days so okay

it's not a grid or a surface on an

analysis chart but it should

something you know that somewhat usable

and I sent a message to the company that

company called oceans that actually

provides the data to Garmin and I said

who are your sources usually it sounded

like they used a GFS and the ECM WM so

and others that they say that are

appropriate length locally so you said a

gadget or you order something useful

it looks like it's useful it's too early

to tell all of you date up pitch on this

operate in American waters you can

download maps from NOAA and those are

nautical maps where as I live in Europe

that's not a feature is not available I

get I think it's called earth map but

just think Google Earth it's that kind

of a presentation that's what this is

it's it's called earth map from from

Garmin and I mean it's what's what's

supplied with this so you can still

navigate within plot waypoints and

courses but I don't think I'll be using

but you can send out 160 character

messages to friends and family to let

them know and I think I find that very

useful

due to a storm I've been delayed a day

and so people won't worry so I think

that's a very useful satellite

communication function yeah when it is a

point is it you can't use that map

feature on the garment itself but you

can see it's a very small map I mean you

can change the scale by pushing the

buttons but again I don't I can't

imagine ever wanting to use that in a

marine application so that's why you

need to pair it up with an iPad and let

do send your messages and look at your

map and your tracking and whatever you

need to do on the iPad rather than

trying to use this the the small screen

of the

explore the good morning Wow we've got

150 miles or so left to go we cross the

Bay of Biscay to our destination which

is left any place from there in a rough

passage rough weather all the way

favorable winds but it's not

uncomfortable at all and that reminds me

you know delivery captains they are a

very special unique breed of sailor

thank God we have them remember when he

invited me to go and come on

on this trip here

pick up this boat in Portugal and go up

the Spanish coast line then across the

Bay of Biscay I thought wow that's great

I know that Spanish cosin very well and

I was if we go to this port here I know

a wonderful restaurant if we go to this

other port I know a wonderful bar where

they have peppers that are great so I

got to discreetly suggested to

how many stops do you plan on mate

he looked at me is stops

those stops we deliver the boat that's a

time of the mission there I mean their

mentality is obviously safety comes

before all else but things like comfort

come way down the list you can kind of

see by the the weather that we've come

up the MU as long as it's not a gobble

and say we go

whereas for me for me making a message

like this I would be looking at even

where is the most favorable wind of

looking what are the Seas and

the challenge is over

I would postpone until

was as favorable as possibly can be but

for those guys time is money you know so

let's get going

so it's a pleasure and an honor being

invited to do a company some

a whole lot of foot hard cooking I'm

winning

but

me votes it's really

performance cruiser high performance

cruiser and it really is you know and

here's the captain hard at work and

there's delivery year he does ten of

these deliveries of more than 500 miles

in nautical miles each each year about

ten and then

assignments that he does so it's a tough

way to earn a living but he loves it

to be a professional delivery skipper in

France there is a qualification that you

get professional certification called

Capitan do some captain captain 200 sail

and that's what the mg has done

good for him but I don't think I'm cut

out to do that kind of work well here we

are

safety arrived in Latin it tastes from

air after a long trip from it started in

Figueroa in Portugal and then went to

Bayona and in fact Bayona across the Bay

of Biscay to here and a couple of themes

came out here in eternity so Mia in

France so a couple thoughts there were

some recurring themes first of all this

gave me a short glimpse of the life of a

delivery captain and where I tip my hat

to them I have a ton of respect for them

they have to deliver boats to schedule

for a boat show or somebody wants to

leave on their vacation from the Canary

Islands and they've got to be there on a

certain date and time they sail in all

kinds of weather and all kinds of

conditions and boy they sure have my

respect next time you meet one of them

him or her by him or a beer they they

certainly deserve it and they they earn

their money well so lots of respect for

both delivery captains and a new

appreciation for that challenge the

second theme it came across on this trip

for us especially since we had some

fairly robust wins

I don't know 25 knots gusting up to 35

for much of the trip with heavy seas is

these fast super fast boats the

performance shots that are cruising

performance shots because the interior

is incredibly comfortable I mean it's

it's just wonderful on the interior the

external side you know if you get used

to the absence of a transom here but boy

does it ever go fast it's just those

basic formulas that we learned for

calculating theoretical haul speed they

don't apply to this kind of a car

the hull hull shape because they just

fly I mean we were seeing all of the

time 10 11 and 12 knots on in my boat

I'm a static with Joey when I see eight

and the very very occasionally nine

knots ooh which is very very rare this

boat that's almost a default setting

nine not see if there's any wind at all

but go straight to nine knots and I

remember at one point as right as we

were finishing air the wind died down

this event right as we were in the last

15-20 miles and we were only doing six

knots and I was feeling a little down

because we're only doing six knots six

knots in my boat is felt wonderful so

wow these performance yachts are really

fantastic and if you add performance and

comfort wow that's something special so

this one is made by this is called an RM

1270 made by for a marine and France it

was a great experience and gave me an

appreciation for a different kind of

sailing to what I'm used to and the

third point I wanted to make was I asked

earlier is this device here this Garmin

in reach Explorer is this a gadget you

know I want to just tell you what

happened it's definitely not a gadget

this is a can be of use to two Mariners

as we passed by the coast of Spain kept

Finisterre for those of you who are

familiar the the Lands End of Spain and

heading out into the Bay of Biscay the

captain of the boat he actually picked

up on his cellphone a weather report for

the babies gay that was completely

different from what we had had

previously

they were forecasting winds from the

north at 45 knots and our forecast was

winds from the south at 25 knots so

you know we looked at each other and

said well maybe we should divert and I

grabbed because in the 24 hours that

we've been on the way maybe the weather

had changed that much it does change

very rapidly in the Bay of Biscay that's

not surprising so but with this I called

up and I got a weather report that basic

format that just confirmed all of the

earlier forecasts that we'd had that the

wind would be from the south 20 20 25

knots and the seas would be what we

experienced so based on that we decided

to continue the mission so this actually

helped us get home so well well done so

I guess this was a great experience I

was just delighted to have been invited

to participate in in a boat delivery I'm

not sure I'd ever want to make that my

career you know the separation from

family and friends and hardships and

difficult weather conditions so again I

I owe my captain a beer yeah more than

one in fact so that ends this trip

thanks very much for watching

you