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Sailing in Zihuatanejo Bay, Mexico
Na Pali coast Kauai, Hawaii
Sunrise leaving Drakes Bay, California
Sailing down Tracy Arm, SE Alaska
Nereida's Travels
My Solo Circumnavigation from 26th March 2007
to May 2008
One major reason for wanting to do a solo circumnavigation is probably the challenge of all that it involves. I enjoy being at sea, as well as meeting people & seeing places on shore, but time doesn't stand still (& bodies don't get younger!) so I feel that now is the time for me to 'sail around the world' in a reasonably short time, as a sailing challenge, rather as the sailors of olden times did, rather than continuing my present slow cruising & taking a lot more years to get around (that can always come later). I'm feeling quite excited at the prospect of it all ...
Preparing "Nereida" in San Diego took quite a time, but I finally sailed down to Ensenada mid-February to complete Mexican check-in formalities and then headed towards Zihuatanejo - where their Guitar Festival finished 18th March. By the end of March, I was well on my way to the Marquesas after fresh food provisioning from the local market.
In planning my route, I have to avoid the cyclone season in the southern hemisphere - November/December to March/April. My route now looks something like this, having left Zihuatanejo on Monday 26th March 2007 (as expected, time is dictating that some places in Polynesia are having to be passed by):
S. Pacific: Marquesas (arrived April 19th) - Rangiroa (Tuamotus) - Tahiti - Bora Bora - Nuie - Tonga - Fiji - Vanuatu (leave Espiritu Santo for Australia by 1st July) - Cairns - Darwin (by early August) to Indonesia (Bali/Lombok) via Indian Ocean (Cocos Keeling - Rodriguez - Mauritius - Reunion). Reach S. Africa by early-mid November, leave Cape Town early January '08, then via S. Atlantic & Caribbean to Panama & back into the Pacific.
Clearly, weather is the main concern and any planning has to be flexible - but with good weather information (via SSB & VHF radio and onboard barometer), it should be possible to have sufficient advance warning to stay safe.
I report my current position regularly as I sail from place to place.
Click on the link "Where is Nereida?" to see a map display of my latest travels, as reported to the Winlink 2000 system.
Click on "Past Travels" to link to ShipTrak - which gives an overview of all my travels from 2004 on!
See my complete Web Log here!