David Ruiz, on the bow of the Thor Cinco, following the Sun
DAVID RUIZ, owner of the sailboat “Thor Cinco”, is a renowned graphic designer and advertising creative from Barcelona, who has successfully completed a round the world single-handed sailing trip, to which he has dedicated four years.
He started in the world of sailing as part of the optimist team of the Club Marítimo de Barcelona, later his passion for the wind led him to practice windsurfing on the beaches of Tarifa; and finally he started sailing in cruising, becoming an expert ocean sailor.
He first acquired a RO 300 sailboat, then a First 36.7 and, since 2007, he is the owner of an ALUBAT Cigale14, the “Thor Cinco”. David Ruiz has crossed the Atlantic five times, three of them solo; and has participated in two Atlantic Grand Prix (2010 and 2014).
To carry out this latest adventure, David decides to close his studio for a few years, leaving his “comfort zone”, and launches himself to sail without haste, with time to enjoy and observe nature.
David Ruiz, breakfast aboard Thor Cinco
Agradecemos de antemano a DAVID RUIZ, amante del mar y del viento, que comparta con nosotros su experiencia en esta entrevista.
David: many miles sailed in your 4 years around the world.
Are you more from the Atlantic, the Pacific or maybe the Indian Ocean?.
Each ocean inspires me differently. The Atlantic means the great escape, leaving home and heading for adventure, a highway to freedom. That’s when the term “casting off” takes on its full meaning. The Pacific is pure fascination, it means a dream fulfilled.
To sail the same waters that Magellan, Cook, Blith’s Bounty, or Thor Heyerdall with the KonTiki, among many other famous ships and navigators, did with so much courage and hardship, has a component of romanticism that makes it something very special, almost magical.
FAKARABA Island
It is pure emotion. Sailing to the mythical islands of the South, what we call paradises, is a life experience that has been engraved forever in my memory.
The Indian Ocean is the one that inspires me the most respect, it brings out all my apprehensions. The northern route across Indonesia to Singapore and the Strait of Malacca to Thailand has been an odyssey for me due to some technical problems, among many other things that happened to me, I spent two days at the mercy of the currents in the Strait of Malacca, without wind, due to a breakdown in the engine, in one of the areas with more traffic in the world and full of fishing boats fishing.
You have discovered different people, cultures and environments.
Any special country, bay or island where you would like to come back to?
Vanuatu, any of its islands; especially Tana crowned by a spectacular active volcano that deserves to be visited.
Vanuatu is far from everywhere, west of Fiji and northeast of New Caledonia. There is little tourism so it is unadulterated. Its people are satisfied and well organized in their villages in the middle of nature, with large markets and good schools.
Vanuatu
It makes me think about how everything could have been, if instead of turning our backs on nature, we had known how to integrate our towns and cities into it, building them with intelligence and the proper respect.
The Marquesas Archipelago is another place to mention. Arriving at Hiva Oa after 33 days of navigation from Panama has been one of the most exciting moments of the trip.
Isla de HIVA OA
As soon as the island is outlined on the horizon, you are invaded by the scent of its flowers, especially the Tiaré Tahiti, a native species that has a unique perfume.
The beauty of these islands from my point of view is unrivaled. Rugged basalt mountains that rise in vertiginous cliffs from the sea to almost a thousand meters high, crowned on their summits by clouds. Lush tropical rainforests teeming with fruit trees and hospitable people. Fatu Hiva is one of the most spectacular islands, and Anaho Bay in Nuku Hiva is another of my favorites, where I was anchored for a couple of weeks, sharing life with the four families who live there, in the middle of nature, without roads, hunting goats and cultivating their gardens.
To give our readers an idea of your boat: can you tell us what the THOR CINCO sailboat is like: seaworthy qualities, features, equipment, etc…?
It is a light displacement sailboat built in aluminum by the Alubat shipyard. Original design by Jean Marie Finot in 1997. Legend has it that this is the boat he drew for himself and his family, and ended up building it in series. 14.6 meters long by 4.45 meters beam and 2.20 meters draft, the smallest of the Cigale saga. It is equipped with 2 ballast tanks, one on each side at the stern, which are activated by a simple valve system, by inertia or by pump as required, allowing to quickly put up to 600 liters of water on each side to compensate the heel and settle the hull well on the water depending on the prevailing conditions.
Thor Cinco, sailing in light winds
It is a design that at the time was ahead of the current trend of boats with a flat hull and a lot of beam cut at the stern. It is very fast in the carrying, it is not difficult to get it up to 15 knots, surfing, ideal for ocean sailing.
Maneuvering is simple, and despite its length, which could be considered excessive for single-handed sailing, it is no problem to do so, and the security it transmits of agility and robustness is priceless.
I’m in favor of equipping a boat with the minimum necessary without doing without the essentials. I assume that everything eventually breaks down, so it is a question of having as little as possible in order to break as little as possible. I often think that Moitissier and his whole generation didn’t even have an engine, so I think it’s important not to go too crazy with unnecessary sophistications that will end up becoming headaches. Technical problems are one of the great scourges of round-the-world sailing. Getting spare parts or good technicians in most places you sail can kill your patience, your economy and ultimately your trip.
I carry a B&G plotter and 2 Raymarine autopilots. A superb Whatt and Sea hydrogenerator, which provides all the power I need while sailing, and 2 flexible solar panels on the bimini for anchorages. The standard refrigerator, I do not carry freezer or watermaker, sailing alone I have no problems of space to stow bottled water, apart from the 500 liter tank that carries the boat. For communications I carry a BLU radio that I never use and the VHF. A laptop computer and an Iridium satellite phone allow me to have e-mail and download weather reports.
Thor Cinco, sailing at full speed in the Pacific Ocean
The boat is equipped with a 55 hp Volvo Md engine, which in flat sea conditions gives me 7.5 knots; 1 tank of 250 liters of diesel and another 200 in plastic drums stowed in two chests aft. In any case, my philosophy on this trip has been not to start the engine until the speed drops below two knots, and to reserve the engine for emergencies and port entries.
I fell in love with the Cigale 14 from the moment I saw it in La Rochelle 15 years ago and did not fall asleep again until a year later, the day I managed to order mine.
Speaking of sailing, do we keep the sextant in its stowage, or do we dust it off and use it?
Technology makes it so easy that taking out the sextant has become an act of romanticism. Today you can go around the world with your cell phone. That’s up to you.
In principle it is not foreseen that someone will disconnect the satellites, although the way we are going lately it is not impossible that it will happen and we will all suddenly find ourselves dusting off the sextants, plotting courses on paper charts and suffering from scurvy.
In Colombia
And we keep on sailing, because… How many hours do you sleep a day at sea?
I would say that this is the most complicated part of solo sailing. I usually sleep for 30 to 40 minutes at the most during a crossing. I take a look at the plotter screen synchronized to the cell phone to observe radar and AIS, and if there is nothing new I continue sleeping for another half hour until the alarm goes off again. The body gets used to everything. Sometimes things get complicated or you simply go through areas with a lot of traffic, and you end up not sleeping a wink. Then I try to catch up on my sleep during the day.
As a rule I try not to go more than 40 hours in a row without sleep because I have found that at least in my case, from then on hallucinations start and you put your navigation in danger. I have suffered this a lot crossing Indonesia on my way to Singapore and also in the Strait of Malacca, where the traffic is constant both for commercial vessels and for the huge fleets of fishing boats that are everywhere, at all hours and many of them without Ais, sowing the sea with poorly marked nets. Sleeping there is absolutely impossible and has forced me to make two-day trips at the most and look for anchorages to rest.
Let’s go now to something that sounds very good. Tell us, please, about your 2 years in the South Seas.
It really is the most beautiful part of the trip. For its component of romanticism, which I have already mentioned before, and because getting there with your own sailboat having left from Europe is a shot of satisfaction, you feel that you have achieved it.
Thor Cinco at anchor in TUAMOTUS
After leaving the Marquesas, which as I have also said is the most beautiful place I have been, I anchored in the Tuamotus, specifically in the atolls of Kauehi and Fakarava.
That is another world, there is very little tourism, the light, the waters, the vegetation, the sharks that are everywhere, everything is exuberant.
Moorea Societé
The islands of Societé are also beautiful, but there the luxury tourism is very settled as we all know, and that makes you lose much of the magic that the other archipelagos have.
The Vavau group of islands in Tonga is another impressive place, you sail through the interior of a network of islands, lined with vegetation, they are the fjords of the tropics. And then there is Vanuatu with its volcanoes that I mentioned at the beginning. I can say that the South Seas have exceeded all my expectations.
Cinco cruces del Atlántico, tres de ellos en solitario. ¿Cuál fue el mejor?
The best was the first one. Apart from what it means emotionally to cross the Atlantic solo for the first time, I found unbeatable conditions. Constant trade winds of 15 knots, always sunny and only a few showers when arriving to the Caribbean. A most pleasant sailing. The second time was as part of the Grand Prix regatta, in the single-handed category, and it was complicated. The passage of an Atlantic squall ended up affecting the entire fleet. The Bucanner, a legendary boat with 8 crew members, sank and its crew was rescued by an ocean liner.
I broke the tendons in my left arm after losing my balance after a capsize, and that meant sailing for ten days to St. Lucia in pretty bad conditions, with only one arm to maneuver the ship, a lot of pain, horrible weather with violent showers, torrential rains and endless lulls in the fog. Nevertheless, I must say that I arrived euphoric in the Caribbean after seeing that I could manage to overcome the circumstances.
The third time has been during this round the world crossing, and it has not been easy either. The trade winds were strong, the showers continuous, the wind never dropped below 26 knots which ended up generating waves of 4 to 6 meters for much of the crossing. So far nothing to object, pure adrenaline, but these conditions were compounded by technical problems that led me to physical exhaustion and especially psychic. I even became dizzy with the noises. It was the first time I felt vulnerable. It took me a few days to feel that I was back in control of the situation.
Una de las situaciones más difíciles a bordo debe ser con mal tiempo. ¿Qué técnicas, velas y equipamiento utilizas en el THOR CINCO en caso de temporal?.
Thor is a glider, so the proper technique is to ride out the storm. Safety is in the speed.
A small foresail and two reefs on the mainsail make the boat fly in steady 30-knot winds and a full sea. I carry hydranet sails, a tough material, very strong and durable.
Thor Cinco navegando con Fuerza 8
The boat in these conditions is in its element and great emotions are guaranteed. From this point on, if things get more difficult, I have a third reef and a storm that allow me to sail relatively well with force 8 and even 9. In the end you realize that the boat supports perfectly well these conditions, and that the one who must endure is you. The limit is set by you. If you tend to slow down too much, that’s when the waves start to play with you and the sailing can start to become dangerous, so it’s all about holding the pressure and running as much as you can. Fortunately I have never found myself in what you might call extreme bad weather situations.
David, in the last part of the round the world trip you cross the Red Sea, which is a dangerous area for a sailboat. Any anecdotes that stand out?
The leg from Sri Lanka to Djibouti crossing the Hight Risk Area through the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa to the entrance of the Red Sea, is an extra pressure of stress because of the pirates; however, it has been one of the legs that I have enjoyed the most, first because of exceptional wind conditions that took me for several days shot at more than 12 knots average from Maldives, and second because I did not have the slightest mishap.
It is impressive to see freighters transiting in convoy formation in groups of 6 or 7 and warning by AIS that they have armed men on board, but there are also international coalition reconnaissance aircraft patrolling the area, and in the end the feeling of security is remarkable. In fact, according to my information, the last attack on a sailboat was three years ago.
Confinado en el Mar Rojo
I had always thought that once in the Red Sea the adventure with capital letters was practically over. However, and as an anecdote of this last stage and until my arrival in September in Barcelona, I will comment that while in Djibouti the Covid crisis broke out. This has meant an extra adventure until the end of the trip.
I was expelled from Eritrea and Sudan by military patrol boats, and later from Greece, where I almost ended up in jail for having entered illegally from Turkey, despite being a European citizen.
Suez, Aldivi y Thor Cinco
But it wasn’t all problems, in Egypt I was confined for two months in a wonderful anchorage next to the Aldivi sailboat of my Mexican friends, the first Mexican family to sail around the world. There we managed to get our supplies, always secretly at night, and we were able to enjoy incredible dives and deserted beaches just for us.
In the end it turned out to be another great life experience brought about by absolutely unprecedented circumstances.
You identify with Mark Twain’s phrase: “The man who lives fully is prepared to die at any moment”. I think it is a great phrase.
Have you lived fully these 4 years or did you miss anything?
The real journey sailing solo, is the one you make inwardly. I have realized that sailing solo attracts me so much because it forces me to be present at all times, and that translates into intensity, to live every second to the fullest, and this has been the case practically during the entire trip. It has been four years in the middle of nature, discovering incredible places and living extraordinary experiences. In this situation it is easy to forget urban life and what we understand by comforts. Values change completely and the world is perceived in a different way, much more logical and human.
Nueva Zelanda
But the great gift of the trip has been to feel freedom in capital letters. I can say that I have felt truly free, and that feeling ends up taking you to a state of fulfillment and personal satisfaction that reconciles you with everything and gives meaning to life. And when you feel like that, dying doesn’t worry you at all, you perceive it as what it is, something normal that is part of the game, of life.
Let’s hope that soon your book about your round-the-world trip will see the light of day.
When will the presentation be held?
I hope to have it ready in a couple of months.
Shall we dock the ship and disembark, or do you have any plans to go back to sea?
Right now my project is on the ground and it is none other than restarting my creative studio; a challenge that motivates me a lot. I feel like I did when I was 25 years old, when everything was still to be done. This total disconnection has allowed me to do a complete reset, and I’m back with new ideas and a great desire to work in a profession that I could almost define as my other hobby. Some ideas are floating around in my head about the next sailing, one never stops dreaming, but right now it’s too early to predict anything, I need more distance. For now I think Thor is going to rest deservedly at least until the summer moored in Port Ginesta.
One last thing to finish: What did loneliness teach you?
I have traveled alone but I have never felt lonely. Loneliness does not depend on being alone or accompanied, but rather it is a state of mind. It is essential to get along with oneself, otherwise such a trip would not be possible. Solitude allows you to get to know yourself to the most hidden corners of your personality; it is a space of time in which your brain flows without interruptions of any kind and a constant inner dialogue is established. You reflect a lot, deduce and ultimately learn.
All this translates into an evolution as a person. Facing alone the setbacks that you encounter along the journey for so long, where all decisions must be made by you, and you are responsible for everything that happens to you, gives you a great solvency and self-confidence.
Anchorage in San Bernardo, Colombia
You learn to relativize problems and to really worry only about what is necessary; serenity settles in and that makes you enjoy life much more because you look at it from above.
You can visit David Ruiz’s blog at the following link: thorcinco.squarespace.com
Instagram: @thorcinco
Interview by Santiago Iglesias de Paul
From “Navegantes Oceánicos” we thank David Ruiz for this valuable interview, which we recommend for its great interest to anyone who is planning an oceanic navigation. We also wish David good luck in this next stage and in the publication of his book, which we hope to see soon.
