High Seas Adventure in the North Atlantic 2022, Westsail 32 Mighty Sparrow
15 December 2025 · 1h 0m · 27K views · Gulf of Maine
Westsail 32 Mighty Sparrow battles North Atlantic storm waves
What this video covers
Jerome Rand departs Rockland, Maine, aboard his Westsail 32 Mighty Sparrow in 2022 on a planned 14,000-mile Atlantic figure-eight passage — his first major offshore voyage since a solo nonstop circumnavigation in 2017–18.0:16 The first three days bring near-gale conditions in the Gulf of Maine, forcing a triple-reefed main and storm jib while covering only 90 miles from Rockland.4:40 Crossing Georges Bank, a breaking wave rolls Sparrow to roughly 180 degrees — nearly inverted — tearing the arch-mounted solar panels and boom gallows completely off, destroying the cap rail, and scattering gear and broken glass below.15:13 With no solar charging, Rand shuts down all non-essential electronics, keeping only the VHF and AIS running.19:57 He considers Bermuda for a replacement solar panel but a strengthening low makes that race too close; he diverts instead toward South Carolina, roughly 1,200 miles away via a southern trade-wind route.32:17 Sleep deprivation becomes the dominant hazard on the return leg — 36-hour stretches awake, one-hour alarm cycles, and no AIS integration with the chartplotter force continuous manual watch-keeping.50:55 Sparrow reaches the coast after approximately three weeks at sea.53:13 The knockdown demonstrated that gut instinct and seamanship must be weighed against forecast technology, which underestimated the storm's severity.0:49
Boats in this video
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