When Jim Bailey sailed solo all the way across the Atlantic
FIFTY years ago this month Wymeswold’s Jim Bailey achieved a lifetime’s ambition when he set foot on American soil after he had sailed the Atlantic solo.
He and his 27-foot catamaran “Determination,” which he and friends had built in a barn at the rear of his Wymeswold home, had braved and beaten the elements in a crossing lasting 46 days 22 hours.
It was the second Atlantic crossing attempt for the brave adventurer.
The previous year a storm and ensuing damage put paid to his bid when he was around halfway across.
Here is an extract from the original Echo report of June 26, 1970, in the aftermath of the momentous occasion.
HE landed at Block Island off the Rhode island coast and walked into a restaurant for breakfast.
“I intended landing in New York,” said 39-years-old Mr Bailey, “but you know how it . I finally felt like stepping ashore.”
During his crossing Mr Bailey, managing director of Roberts and Bailey, tailors of Hudson Street, Loughborough had to contend with 12 days in fog, six days when he was totally becalmed and five days of fierce storms.
“I am delighted for him,” commented Mrs Bailey,” he has at last fulfilled a burning ambition.
She said she was never really worried about her husband’s safety “but I would have been if I had known that his bow had been holed and the selfsteering gear smashed.”
One of the first things to do when Mr Bailey was ashore was to ring his wife and three young children, Scott, 13, Karen, 11 and Alison 3 at their home, Clay Street, Wymeswold.
Last years he made an unsuccessful attempt at the same crossing. He was forced to turn round near the Azores with damage.
This time his self-steering gear was smashed in a storm, his bow I holed by a heavy sea, his radio broke down and part of his navigational equipment became defective.
He said that when he ran into storms near the Azores it was like a repeat of last, year. “I had to make exactly the same decision again, almost on the same spot. This time remembering the lessons I learned last year I decided to press on and now I am glad I did.”
He told how he rode out a tremendous storm and managed to re-build the steering with wood from a dismantled bunk. At one point he had to get out of the boat and into the water to make repairs to a hole in the bow.
Mr. Bailey lost his radio early in the journey and the only messages relayed back from him came from ships which he met.
“The Mexican merchantman Azteca threw me a bottle of rum two-thirds of the way over and that cheered me up,” he said.
When he cleared the storm area Mr Bailey thought the worst was over but he misjudged the Gulf Stream and found when he got a fix that he had sailed too far north to a position off Nova Scotia.
It was while he was sailing southwest from this spot for New York that he ran into the fog and calm days.
“This was really unnerving because I could expect to see some traffic about,” he said.
Mr Bailey, who spent 11 years in the Merchant Navy and has his Master’s Certificate was in good physical shape. He said he lived on “bits and pieces of canned soup, spaghetti, beans and other basics of life.”
After a sight-seeing trip and a long sleep, Mr Bailey sailed the 90-miles from Block Island to New York the following day where he was met by an old friend from Loughborough, Mr Frank Staniforth.
Mr Staniforth who used to live in Woodhouse Eaves is now managing the New York office of Thomas Meadows Ltd, shipping agents.
Mr Bailey is staying at the Staniforth’s home for a few days before he decides how to make the trip back to England.
The Americans have shown a lot of interest in Mr Bailey’s exploit and he was asked to go on radio and television and to put Determination on display.
One thing is certain. He is not sailing home in Determination. The catamaran is up for sale in New York and Mr Bailey may fly back.