Since I am only about 657 nm from completion, I guess I ought to define what circumnavigation is. First some supporting information. The circumference of the Earth is 24,901.55 miles (21,637 nm) at the equator. If you were to extend a straight line from some point on the earth through is center it would come out somewhere. Those two points would be “antipodean” to each other and hence are called “antipodes”. According to the Guinness Book, a true circumnavigation must:
- Begin and end at the same place (San Salvador,Bahamas)
- Cross all lines of longitude (I will have)
- Cross the equator (twice)
- Cross at least one pair of antipodes (12deg S /127deg E and 12deg N/ 053deg W)
If one meets all these requirements he will sail over 26,000 miles (to get around the continents).
Not to take anything away from the competitors of the Around Alone and Vendee Globe Races but most do not meet the antipode requirement and sail only about 21,600 miles. A course from the Cape of Good Hope (Africa) eastward to Cape Horn (South America) passes just off the Southeast Cape of New Zealand. If you stay on course you will encounter no land, only open ocean for 9,616 miles. This tactic, which most of the constants employ, not only misses all the land but stays in the Southern Ocean where the wind howls out of the West almost constantly. Sailing a 50-60’ boat at 15-20+ knots, in the Southern Ocean, water temp 35 F, with a very real chance of icebergs, alone… my hat is off to them, no thank you.
