I used to think that sailing across an ocean, not even single handed, would be a fun kind of adventure. Being in the middle of an ocean, hundreds, if not thousands of miles from land, surviving on just what you have with you... well something about that appealed to me and I actually thought I might do it one day. Then I actually did some sailing and got my ass slammed around a bit in the swell outside of the Golden Gate (admittedly notoriously rough even without bad weather) and that dream went out the window like a piece of gum from a speeding car. Swooosh!
It wasn't actually the sea sickness (I think I'm above average in resilience to that malady - but certainly not immune), more the feeling that at any moment any one of the pieces of the boat could spontaneously fail (as they often do) and leave me alone and helpless. Add to that actual bad weather, towering seas, freezing cold and the odds really start to stack against you. I have no doubt that surviving such conditions would be "character building stuff" of a "the journey is the reward" type, but lets just say when it comes to wind, waves, freezing cold and daily risk of drowning without a chance of rescue (which I've almost done twice) I'm chicken shit.
So it goes without saying that while I'm envious of those who have actually followed their dreams and made such a voyage I'm also not about to follow in their footsteps any day soon. If you could transport me to the middle of the ocean, guarantee benign conditions, maybe even warm seas for a swim and good food and company I'd be up for it in a flash. Until then I'll stick to more trivial pursuits and perhaps a bit of day sailing on the Bay where a nice chastisers rescue vessel is just a radio call away.
However I can report that Sebastian Naslund wins my prize for ballzy adventures on the ocean. He built his own 14-foot boat and sailed it across the Atlantic from Norway to South America, up the US Atlantic Coast and back again. If don't know much about sailing let me assure you that a 14-foot sailboat is a tiny vessel. It helps that it's built like a lifeboat but lets just say I'm "dead impressed" with what he did. In fact there is even a name for it - "microcruising". Although the photos of Sebastian's voyage are impressive they don't quite win the all time prize for microcruising shock and awe.
That prize goes to Ashley Coulston who sailed the 8-foot G'day-88 4280 miles on the Tasman sea between New Zealand and Australia. After being dismasted he actually abandoned ship on the initial W-E crossing but G'day 88 later washed ashore and it was refitted and sailed back E-W some 2705 miles in 65 days. Bizarrely Coulston was later charged with the execution style killing of three people in Victoria and is now serving a life sentence for the crime.
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