Sailing alone means: no crew, no arguments, no bad food. It’s just me. I’m responsible for everything. I am free. But sailing alone also means: danger. When do I sleep? What if I fall ill? There are no sailing courses and only a few books. You have to learn by doing. You make mistakes and in the best case you learn from them. Sometimes that’s hard and expensive.
Sailing
Winter Gales
Lord Howe Island, 700 kilometres from Sydney, in the Pacific. UNESCO World Heritage Site. These 700 kilometres are tough. Lots of wind, waves, broken equipment and seasickness. It’s winter, time for storms. Winter storms.
Arriving
They say the journey is the destination. But what happens – after having crossed two oceans and more than half of the world – when you finally arrive at the destination of your dreams? I’ve met Patrice and Bill twenty years ago on the Larapinta Trail in the hot centre of Australia. It was the … Read more
Gale and doldrums. Sailing from Bora Bora to Samoa
Life goes differently than my planning. Actually, I wanted to sail to Penrhyn, the northernmost Cook Island. Instead, I end up in a Doldrum area, a stationary zone with no wind. New plan, new course. And instead of doldrums, now gale is predicted. Will I find shelter in the middle of the open Pacific? Or do I have to go through it? My route: from Bora Bora via Suwarrow to Samoa, in the middle of the Pacific.