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The
last 1000 miles of the Pacific, the home stretch in the
little adventure that has become known as the Pacifico Project,
is complete.
I am happy to announce that I arrived to Cairns, Australia.
It has been a voyage of over 9,000 km that has lasted over
7 months and has brought me more than 1/3 around the planet.
I have sailed across the world's largest ocean. That's one
ocean down, two to go!
An Ocean of Dreams
In almost every harbour across the Pacific, there are broken
yachts. They are filthy, falling apart, and every day lying
a little lower in the water. Untouched for months or even
years, they are like grey ghosts hovering about on their
anchorages. They are the last decaying evidence of someone's
dream. Someone made it this far, and for whatever reason,
they left and the boat didn't. I find myself captivated
by the grey ghosts.
They are a powerful symbol of the Pacific. This ocean is
in many ways a graveyard of dreams and these are the tombstones.
It
took 8 boats to get me here. Of them, one never even left
the Caribbean, and I doubt ever will. Another is sailing
back to North America having accomplished only a small portion
of the original dream but no doubt he's accomplished and
learned what was out there to discover - about the world
and himself. Another flew back home and will return to his
boat next season - living out his life with gusto - having
been diagnosed with terminal cancer several years ago. His
story inspires me the most. The rest are out there, somewhere,
sailing west into the sunset. For whatever their reason,
and at whatever their pace.
Another friend lost his $100,000 carbon mast on the last
passage. There were no injuries, but hopefully his dreams
of sailing around the world are only delayed.
Another
struck an uncharted reef and managed to send out a mayday
before sinking, 450 km from Australia. Our friends aboard
were winched onto an Australian coast guard helicopter within
4 hours.
The owner of one of the boats I was on, who had always
dreamed of sailing around the world, was diagnosed with
cancer halfway through the Pacific. He flew home from Tonga
and died just last week. He may have waited a little too
long to completely live out his dream, but he made the big
step to try and that is the far more admirable part of it.
My current boat has pulled out and sailed east to New Zealand,
so I decided to stay in Australia. It was a very emotional
and difficult decision for me to make, but I'm once again
continuing west!
I think need another ocean.
Ahead
lies the bottleneck called the Torres Strait. Basically
all that wind and water I've been riding on gets pushed
through a tiny gap between Australia and Papua New Guinea
- and that's where I'm headed once I find a new boat!
I'll find my way through the Strait, and pop out on the
other side where a new ocean awaits! Stay tuned!
