cruising
d n u o r A d l r o W e th eikell
with Rod H
Your First
Circumnavigation A circumnavigation of the World at trade wind latitudes is for many of us the ultimate sailing aspiration. Rod Heikell who has done four transatlantics, three times across the Indian Ocean and a circumnavigation, takes us through some of the options.
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t’s a scary thing setting off on a circumnavigation. It hurts the brain and the pocket and for anyone embarking on the adventure it seems so much more sensible to stay in home waters with what you know. Fortunately sensible is not what a lot of us are good at. Think of a circumnavigation as just a series of smaller passages that join up into a longer affair. And don’t tell anyone you are doing it... just off on a cruise down the coast of Atlantic Spain and, oh, we seem to be in the Canaries now. Well may as well keep going, after all the logical route back is via the Caribbean. Not that you can be laid back about setting off. Most sailing yachts are sturdy enough though you need to pay special attention to the rudder, steering cables, 84 Sailing Today November 2011
standing and running rigging and of course the sails. I’m constantly surprised by how many people think about spending large amounts of money on electronic boat toys when the sails on the boat need replacing. Keep the old sails on board as back-up. You can have all the bells and whistles, generator, watermaker, touchscreen plotters, electric winches and a microwave, but you don’t NEED them. What you do need is a well found boat, hull, rig, sails, charts and crew. There is a lot of research and a lot of preparation to do before casting the lines off though that part is exciting as well. On most ocean voyages that come unstuck it is boat gear or crew that break and not the boat itself.