A difficult voyage across the ocean began. Fedor Konyukhov swam alone across the Pacific Ocean

It is not the harsh elements of the sea that kill shipwrecked people, but their own fears and weaknesses. To prove this, French doctor Alain Bombard crossed the Atlantic in an inflatable boat, without food or water.

In May 1951, the French trawler Notre-Dame de Peyrags set sail from the port of Equiem. At night, the ship lost its course and was thrown onto the ledge of the Carnot Pier by the waves. The ship sank, but almost the entire crew managed to put on vests and leave the ship. The sailors had to swim a short distance to get to the stairs on the wall of the pier. Imagine the surprise of the port doctor Alain Bombard when in the morning rescuers pulled 43 corpses ashore! People who found themselves in the water simply saw no point in fighting the elements and drowned while remaining afloat.

Stock of knowledge

The doctor who witnessed the tragedy could not boast of much experience. He was only twenty-six years old. While still studying at the university, Alain was interested in the capabilities of the human body in extreme conditions. He collected a lot of documented facts when daredevils remained alive on rafts and boats, in cold and heat, with a flask of water and a can of canned food on the fifth, tenth and even thirtieth day after the crash. And then he put forward the version that it is not the sea that kills people, but their own fear and despair.

The sea wolves only laughed at the arguments of yesterday’s student. “Boy, you’ve only seen the sea from the pier, and yet you’re interfering with serious issues,” the ship’s doctors arrogantly declared. And then Bombar decided to experimentally prove that he was right. He conceived a voyage as close as possible to the conditions of a sea disaster.

Before trying his hand, Alain decided to stock up on knowledge. The Frenchman spent six months, from October 1951 to March 1952, in the laboratories of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.

Alain Bombard with a hand press, which he used to squeeze the juice out of fish

He studied the chemical composition of sea water, types of plankton, and the structure of marine fish. The Frenchman learned that sea fish are more than half fresh water. And fish meat contains less salt than beef. This means, Bombar decided, you can quench your thirst with juice squeezed out of fish. He also found out that sea water is also suitable for drinking. True, in small doses. And the plankton that whales feed on is quite edible.

One on one with the ocean

Bombar attracted two more people with his adventurous idea. But due to the size of the rubber vessel (4.65 by 1.9 m), I took only one of them with me.

Rubber boat “Heretic” - on it Alain Bombard went to conquer the elements

The boat itself was a tightly inflated rubber horseshoe, the ends of which were connected by a wooden stern. The bottom, on which the light wooden flooring (elani) lay, was also made of rubber. There were four inflatable floats on the sides. The boat was supposed to be accelerated by a quadrangular sail with an area of ​​three square meters. The name of the ship was a match for the navigator himself - “Heretic”.
Bombard later wrote that the reason for choosing the name was that most people considered his idea “heresy”, not believing in the possibility of surviving by eating only seafood and salt water.

However, Bombar did take some things into the boat: a compass, a sextant, navigation books and photographic equipment. On board there was also a first aid kit, a box with water and food, which were sealed to prevent temptation. They were intended for the most extreme cases.

Alain's partner was to be the English yachtsman Jack Palmer. Together with him, Bombard made a test voyage on the Heretic from Monaco to the island of Minorca lasting seventeen days. The experimenters recalled that already on that voyage they experienced a deep sense of fear and helplessness in front of the elements. But everyone assessed the result of the campaign in their own way. Bombard was inspired by the victory of his will over the sea, and Palmer decided that he would not tempt fate twice. At the appointed time of departure, Palmer simply did not show up at the port, and Bomb Bar had to go to the Atlantic alone.

On October 19, 1952, a motor yacht towed the Heretic from the port of Puerto de la Luz in the Canary Islands to the ocean and unhooked the cable. The northeast trade wind blew into the small sail, and the Heretic set off towards the unknown.

It is worth noting that Bombard made the experiment more difficult by choosing voyages from Europe to America. In the middle of the 20th century, ocean routes lay hundreds of miles from Bombard’s path, and he simply did not have a chance to feed himself at the expense of good sailors.

Against nature

On one of the first nights of the voyage, Bombar was caught in a terrible storm. The boat filled with water, and only the floats kept it on the surface. The Frenchman tried to scoop out the water, but he did not have a ladle, and there was no point in doing it with his palms. I had to adapt my hat. By morning the sea had calmed down, and the traveler perked up.

A week later, the wind tore the sail that was moving the boat. Bombar installed a new one, but half an hour later the wind blew it away into the waves. Alen had to repair the old one, and he floated under it for two months.

The traveler obtained food as he had planned. He tied a knife to a stick and with this “harpoon” killed his first prey - a sea bream fish. He made fishhooks from her bones. In the open ocean, the fish were unafraid and grabbed everything that fell into the water. The flying fish even flew into the boat itself, killing itself when it hit the sail. By morning, the Frenchman found up to fifteen dead fish in the boat.

Bombar's other "delicacy" was plankton, which tasted like krill paste but was unsightly. Occasionally birds were caught on the hook. The traveler ate them raw, throwing only feathers and bones overboard.

During the voyage, Alen drank sea water for seven days, and the rest of the time he squeezed the “juice” out of fish. It was also possible to collect the dew that settled on the sail in the morning. After almost a month of sailing, a gift from heaven awaited him - a downpour that gave fifteen liters of fresh water.

The extreme hike was difficult for him. The sun, salt and rough food led to the fact that the whole body (even under the nails) was covered with small ulcers. Bombar opened the abscesses, but they were in no hurry to heal. The skin on my legs also peeled off in shreds, and the nails on four of my fingers fell out. Being a doctor, Alain monitored his health and recorded everything in the ship's log.

When it rained for five days in a row, Bombar began to suffer greatly from excess humidity. Then, when there was no wind and heat, the Frenchman decided that these were his last hours and wrote his will. And when he was about to give his soul to God, the shore appeared on the horizon.

Having lost twenty-five kilograms of weight in sixty-five days of sailing, on December 22, 1952, Alain Bombard reached the island of Barbados. In addition to proving his theory of survival at sea, the Frenchman became the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a rubber boat.

After the heroic voyage, the whole world recognized the name of Alain Bombard. But he himself considered the main result of this journey not to be the glory that fell. And the fact that throughout his life he received more than ten thousand letters, the authors of which thanked him with the words: “If it weren’t for your example, we would have died in the harsh waves of the sea.”

An extreme experiment carried out by the French doctor Alain Bombard proved that the capabilities of the human body are truly endless. Alone, this legendary man swam across the Atlantic Ocean, supporting his strength only by what the ocean sent him. Throughout the entire journey, Alan did not eat or even drink ordinary fresh water, but in the end he managed to reach the treasured shore.

Alain Bombard was the doctor on duty at the Boulogne hospital when 43 sailors were brought there - victims of a shipwreck at the Carnot Pier. None of them could be saved. Alain reproached himself for not being able to do anything for them. He began collecting information about shipwrecks. It turned out that around the world about 200 thousand people die every year in such disasters. Of these, 50 thousand manage to get onto lifeboats and rafts, but still die a painful death after some time. And 90% of victims die within the first three days after the shipwreck. Bombard wrote: “Victims of the legendary shipwrecks who died prematurely, I know: it was not the sea that killed you, it was not hunger that killed you, it was not thirst that killed you! Rocking on the waves to the plaintive cries of seagulls, you died of fear.”
And he decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a tiny inflatable boat. Without water and food - to prove that a person is able to survive after a shipwreck.

But before this, Alain spent six months in the laboratories of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. He studied the chemical composition of sea water, types of plankton, and the structure of marine fish. The Frenchman learned that sea fish are more than half fresh water. And fish meat contains less salt than beef. This means, Bombar decided, you can quench your thirst with juice squeezed out of fish.
At first, swimming was not intended to be solo. Bombar looked for a companion for a long time, even advertised in newspapers. But the letters came from suicides (“please take me with you on a voyage, because I have already tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide three times already”), crazy people (“I am a very good travel companion, and besides, I will give you permission to eat me when you are hungry”) or not very smart readers (“I propose to test your theory on my family, first I ask you to accept my mother-in-law into the crew, I have already received her consent”).
In the end, an unemployed yachtsman, Panamanian Jack Palmer, was found. Bombard did not reproach him in any way, but after two weeks of a test voyage from Monaco to the island of Mallorca, during which the researchers ate only two sea bass, several spoons of plankton and drank several liters of sea water, Jack Palmer changed his mind and simply did not set sail. And Alain Bombard sailed across the Atlantic alone.

He named his boat "Heretic". It was a tightly inflated rubber punt, 4 m 65 cm long and 1 m 90 cm wide, with a wooden stern and light wooden flooring at the bottom. The Heretic moved with the help of a quadrangular sail measuring approximately 1.5 x 2 m. Retractable keels, oars, mast, hoists and other equipment were extremely simple and inconvenient. As a matter of principle, he did not take any fishing rods or nets with him; he decided to make them from improvised means, as befits a shipwrecked person. He tied a knife to the end of the oar and bent the tip to form a harpoon. When he harpooned the first sea bream, he also obtained the first fishing hooks, which he made from fish bones.
During the first nights, Bombar was caught in a storm. It was impossible to actively resist the waves on a rubber boat; you could only bail out the water. He didn’t think of taking the ladle with him, so he used his hat, quickly became weak, lost consciousness and woke up in the water. The boat was completely filled with water, only rubber floats remained on the surface. Before the boat was afloat, he bailed out water for two hours: each time new water negated all his work.
As soon as the storm subsided, the sail burst. Bombar replaced it with a spare one, but half an hour later a squall struck and tore off the new sail and carried it away along with all the fasteners. Bombar had to sew up the old one and walk under it the whole way.

It is believed that a person can live no more than 10 days without water. Bombar was only able to drink fresh water on the 23rd day of the voyage, having found himself in a strip of heavy rain. How did he survive? I drank sea water. “Alas, you can’t drink sea water for more than five days in a row,” Alen clarified. - I say this as a doctor, otherwise you can ruin your kidneys. You need to take a break of at least three days. And then this cycle can be repeated.”
During these three days, Bombar extracted water from fish. Bombar cut the meat into small pieces and squeezed out the liquid using his shirt. It turned out to be a slurry of fat and juice, disgusting to the taste, but fresh. It’s easier with large fish: you can make cuts on its body and immediately drink the juice. To avoid scurvy, the navigator ate plankton every day - it is rich in vitamin C. “It was enough to throw an ordinary sock on a string overboard to get a total of two tablespoons of plankton during the day,” Bombard assured. - Unlike raw fish, it doesn’t taste bad. It feels like you’re eating lobsters or shrimp.”
Bombar refused to wear waterproof clothing. He was wearing ordinary trousers, a shirt, a sweater and a jacket. The Frenchman believed that he was already superbly equipped. After all, when a ship sinks, a person usually does not have time to think about his wardrobe. Already on the second day after sailing, having gotten wet through and through, Bombar discovered that even wet clothes retain body heat. Thus, another rule was born: “A shipwrecked person should not take off his clothes, even if they are wet.”

After sixty-five days of sailing, Alain Bombard reached the island of Barbados. He lost 25 kg, his red blood cell and hemoglobin levels were bordering on fatal, he was diagnosed with serious visual impairment, his toenails fell out, and his entire skin was covered with rashes and small pimples. The body was dehydrated and extremely exhausted, but it reached the shore. An emergency supply of food remained on his boat, the safety of which was officially certified at the end of the experiment - he never touched the NZ.
He wrote the book "Overboard of his own free will."
Then he received more than ten thousand letters, the authors of which thanked him with the words: “If it weren’t for your example, we would have died in the harsh waves of the sea.”

If crossing the ocean by boat seems like a dubious and very risky undertaking to you, then you are probably a somewhat more reasonable person than the ten captains from our selection - they traveled around the world at sea and found themselves in the most life-threatening conditions.

1. Tahiti Nui I (1956)

In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl began studying the theory of human migration and decided to test it on himself: his most famous journey was the Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a raft in the image and likeness of the ancient Polynesians, to prove that this is possible.

But the French navigator Eric de Bishop did not have a very high opinion of Thor Heyerdahl's ideas and did not agree that the Peruvians crossed the Pacific Ocean and settled in Polynesia. Instead, de Bishop believed in a large Polynesian civilization that existed thousands of years before Christ and stretched as far east as Chile.

So de Bishop built a boat out of bamboo, intending to cross the Pacific Ocean and prove his theory: to achieve his goal, he first sailed south of the 40th parallel, better known as the "Roaring Fortieth" due to the almost constant hurricanes that raged in the region. winds. Experts delicately described this route as “suicidal,” but to everyone’s surprise, the boat survived the brutal storms of the southern seas and performed well in harsh conditions.

Halfway to South America, de Bishop's crew noticed that their raft was literally falling apart due to an infestation of shellfish called teredos. On the 199th day of the voyage, the raft began to sink, and de Bishop finally used a walkie-talkie to save him - this happened 240 km off the coast of South America.

2. Seven Sisters (1954)

Unlike de Bishop, William Willis did not have any complex academic theories - he just wanted to test his 61-year-old body at sea. He planned to sail alone on a balsa wood raft from Peru to American Samoa, but met with terrible misfortune almost at the very beginning of the journey.

All the fresh water Willis took with him was contaminated, and he had to swim another 10,8 thousand km across the Pacific Ocean - Willis survived on rainwater, raw flour, condensed milk and small cups of sea water. During one particularly nasty storm, a large wave carried a 2.7-meter shark onto his Seven Sisters raft. Willis fought the shark and eventually threw it back into the ocean, but it severed an artery in his forearm, which the sailor somehow managed to stitch right on himself.

But nothing could compare (at least for Willis) with the fear of losing his cat companion: that is why, every time a stormy sea threw a cat overboard, the grizzled old sailor rushed after him and fought the Pacific Ocean to save his friend .

Miraculously, Willis, his cat and a raft the size of a living room reached American Samoa in excellent condition: they sailed 3,2 thousand km more than Thor Heyerdahl. For an encore, at the age of 70, Willis sailed on a raft from South America to Australia and this time managed to swim 17.7 thousand km.

3. Ra II (1970)

Kon-Tiki was not Thor Heyerdahl's only voyage: after crossing the Pacific to test his Peruvian theory of migration, the Norwegian set his sights on the Atlantic to test perhaps even more ancient maritime traditions.

It is believed that ancient Egyptian papyrus ships were only suitable for traveling along rivers, because such a fragile vessel would certainly have perished in a stormy sea. The tour proved that this criticism was fair by making the Ra I's maiden voyage from Africa to America - which ended with the boat taking on water and breaking apart.

But this did not stop Heyerdahl and his team: they built a second papyrus boat, this time with the participation of Bolivian shipbuilders who make similar boats for sailing on Lake Titicaca.

On Ra II, Heyerdahl successfully sailed from Morocco to Barbados (6,450 km) in 57 days: the journey is especially impressive considering that the ship lasted four times longer than scientists had expected.

4. Akali (1973)

“11 strangers who survived together on a raft” - you may have heard about this experiment by Santiago Genoves. He worked with Thor Heyerdahl's expeditions, and was struck by the idea that a small raft would be an ideal testing ground for studying human behavior - research subjects cannot hide their behavior on a piece of land with an area of ​​\u200b\u200b12x7 m.

Genoves, more an anthropologist than a sailor, selected five male and six female volunteers from different cultures for a 101-day voyage from the Canary Islands to Mexico. Genoves compiled a questionnaire of 8,000 questions and answers based on the experiences of his study subjects.

Members of the Akali expedition survived incredible hardships - a suicide attempt, serious illness, hurricanes and shark attacks: it is not surprising that the young volunteers during this trip became bronzed from the tan and significantly improved their physical fitness. In addition, the volunteers relieved boredom during the trip through various sexual orgies, making agreements among themselves regarding their sexual activities.

5. Excalibur (1981)

Curtis and Kathleen Saville loved risks, so they decided to take a rowing boat across the Atlantic Ocean. The Savilles traveled to Morocco, but encountered a storm that forced them to sail through a war zone off the coast of the Spanish Sahara. But once the Savills reached the open ocean, Excalibur's small size allowed them to easily collect samples of small ocean life.

The Excalibur was only 7.6 m long, due to which sea water easily fell onto the deck, and this gave the couple the opportunity to see many luminous tiny creatures: the couple described many more specimens of this type than researchers of that time who remained on land could describe .

The Savilles arrived safely in Antigua after 83 days of almost constant paddling.

6. Phenicia (2007)

In 600 BC. e. Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a group of Phoenicians (Phenicia is a region in modern Syria and Lebanon) who sailed around Africa in three years. Since then, scientists have debated the possibility of such a trip, using as an argument the fact that travel around Africa was not undertaken until 1488. The source of doubt is simple: in order to move even a step, all Phoenician galleys needed wind, which constantly filled the sails throughout the journey.

In 2007, Philip Beale, an adventurer, historian and anthropologist, decided to confirm Herodotus's story: Beale used a similar Phoenician ship, built on the model of a wrecked Phoenician galley. The only modern addition on board was a tiny engine to avoid being towed out of the harbor, but otherwise Beale had a ship that sailed just like its ancient predecessor - poorly: without perfectly favorable winds, the ship simply drifted on the open ocean.

There were many problems: while trying to steer the ship, Beal broke nine rudders, and one day storms tore the ship's sail in two - the entire crew of 11 people jumped out of the ship, which was taking on water, in order to stay afloat. And since Beale had not equipped the ship with anything like a modern winch or pulley, the crew repaired the yard and re-set the sail by hand.

Two years later, with more than 27,000 km behind them, Beal and his crew managed to complete their trip, sailing through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden and narrowly avoiding the modern equivalent of the scurvy that must have been the scourge of that ancient Phoenician voyage.

7. Cork Raft (2002)

John Pollack came up with an absurd idea: President Clinton's former speech writer decided to build a boat out of wine corks—165,321 individual wine corks to be exact.

It took two years of planning, testing and labor, but he finally secured thousands of plugs with an ingenious system. What is the result? The result was a longboat like an ancient Viking vessel, and although the boat looked quite nice, it was almost uncontrollable - this made the cork raft's journey through Portugal difficult and unforgettable. Interestingly, Portugal is the largest supplier of cork in the world.

Pollack and several volunteers spent more than two weeks paddling down the Dor River to the sea: with the help of a passing tugboat, the crew was able to negotiate the bends in the river, and the cork raft completed its journey almost intact.

8. Starkell Canoe (1980–1982)

Don Starkell claimed that he could row more miles than any other person, and we're inclined to believe him: in one trip, Starkell added 19,999 to the rest of his miles. Starkell and his two sons carried their 6.4-metre canoe out of their Winnipeg home in 1980.

They sailed through the Red River in Mississippi, through the Gulf of Mexico, the Orinoco, and finally the Rio Negro. The two Starkells paddled in an open canoe all the way to the mouth of the Amazon: one of Starkell's sons, Jeff, abandoned the canoe in Mexico after suffering too many life-threatening injuries - they encountered a huge number of obstacles along the way.

Wild animals like snakes and sharks were, of course, dangerous, but in the end they became the least of Don Starkell's worries - Nicaraguan rebels, drug couriers and Honduran robbers caused much more problems for the rowers. 13 countries, 45 breaches and at least 15 capsizes later, the Starkells arrived at the mouth of the mighty Amazon River.

But officials believed in the heartbreaking story of the Canadians with great difficulty: the Starkells were barely able to collect the necessary documents, withstood a number of interviews in Venezuela and letters from various embassies, but their voyage was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest canoe journey.

9. Lehi IV (1958)

In the 1950s, only the lazy did not construct anthropological theories about ocean travel on rafts: theories about the pre-Columbian colonization of America were a dime a dozen, as were eccentrics willing to undertake dubious maritime ventures in order to support various theories.

Dever Baker was one such eccentric: after reading the Book of Mormon (the sacred text of the Latter-day Saint, or Mormon, movement), Baker decided to prove that the Israelites sailed from the Red Sea to Central America and colonized the New World.

Without any archaeological evidence, Baker began building rafts to test his theories. Note the number "IV" after the word "Lehi" - Baker's first three boats were unsuccessful, but on the fourth attempt Baker finally created a wooden platform, which, however, was almost impossible to control.

Despite a host of problems with his ship, Baker set sail from Redondo Beach, Hawaii. The obvious question is, “What does this have to do with Israel and Central America?” Answer: none.

The pointlessness of this journey is beyond doubt, and it was incredible luck that the traveler had constantly favorable winds, he did not experience a single serious storm, and a small crew of students helped make this Hawaiian trip a reality. The other main source of assistance was a Coast Guard cutter, which helped complete the trip by towing the Lehi IV to shore.

Lehi IV did nothing at all to advance anthropological theories, but of course Baker gained fame when his wife wrote a book about the journey from the perspective of the dog that swam with him.

10. Tahiti Nui II–III (1958)

Eric de Bishop did not give up after the failure of Tahiti Nui I: no, he built a new boat from cypress, which he launched in Chile, intending to sail to Polynesia.

At first glance, things were going quite well for the team of five people: by June, after two months of travel, the Tahiti Nui II sank only 20 cm, but by the end of June the boat had already sunk a meter under water, and the crew was forced to take cover on the roof of the boat cabin. There was still another 650 km to sail before landing on the Marquesas Islands, when the team discovered that the boat was again covered with teredos mollusks, making countless holes in the wood.

The dissatisfaction of the crew members, some of whom managed to leave the expedition, the reduction in supplies and the fever did not do de Bishop any favors: by August the boat had traveled only 240 km and was barely staying afloat, but de Bishop recovered and he had a plan - “Tahiti Nui III".

He and the people who remained with him built a new, smaller raft, using relatively intact logs and barrels of water: for a week, the crew tried to build a new boat, while trying to make the old one able to somehow float. They succeeded: the deck of the Tahiti Nui III was only 1.5 x 1.8 m, but the pathetic little vessel could nevertheless float, and the crew desperately clung to it as it was thrown through the stormy sea waves - to shore, to safety.

The Tahiti Nui III washed up on the Cook Islands, but unfortunately de Bishop did not survive the boat's collision with the reefs. However, thanks to his amazing ingenuity, his team made it to land and eventually escaped.

This book by Polish writer Andrzej Urbanczyk is dedicated to the hundred-year history of solo sailing. This is a series of essays about the transoceanic and circumnavigation voyages of more than seventy solo sailors.

The essays feature solo sailors from Alfred Jensen to Robin Knox-Johnston, who completed his unprecedented circumnavigation of the world in April 1969.

The author has expended enormous effort to summarize the data concerning single transoceanic or circumnavigation voyages, especially those accomplished in the early period of their history. He had to leaf through dozens of magazines in different languages ​​over many decades in order to piece together information about half-forgotten lone sailors. A. Urbanchik repeatedly emphasizes the inconsistency of sources. Indeed, at the end of the last century and for a good thirty years of this century, solo sailors went on their desperate voyages without a walkie-talkie. People learned that the sailor did not die in the fight against the elements, but continued his voyage, from the lips of ship captains who, by a lucky chance, managed to meet a ship lost in the ocean. Journalists sometimes received this information only tenth-hand, and it was difficult to vouch for its reliability. The first solo navigators, with the exception of Joshua Slocum, did not leave strictly documented descriptions of their voyages.

Fortunately, in subsequent periods of the history of solo sailing, the number of documented sources increases, and above all the books of the solo sailors themselves, which were also used by A. Urbanchik. Compared to other generalizing publications about solo navigation (and there are only three of these in the world literature), A. Urbanchpka’s book “Alone across the Ocean” contains the most complete summary of data. I would also like to note that this book is not perceived as a hymn to individualism; on the contrary, all the essays are imbued with the spirit of unity and continuity of people of different generations and nationalities in a wonderful and proud desire to measure strength against the formidable elements.

In the large and useful work of A. Urbanchik, which is presented with minor abbreviations, there were some inaccuracies that were eliminated during editing. This concerns the description of some ocean currents and winds, as well as the position of a number of geographical objects.

Perhaps the literary form of the essays is somewhat monotonous. But it’s one thing to talk about travel across continents with all the diversity of landscapes, features of flora and fauna, history and ethnography, and another thing to describe ocean voyages with their characteristic monotonous repetition of events (squall, storm, calm, waves, sharks, etc.). d.). It seems to us, however, that the majority of readers, captivated by the duel between man and the ocean elements, are unlikely to attach importance to this shortcoming.

Andrzej Urbanczyk brought his story up to 1969 (except for Robin Lee Graham's round-the-world trip on his Dove, which he completed on April 30, 1970).

Of course, the history of solo sailing has not stood still since April 1970. First of all, we should talk about the voyage, which even seasoned sailors called incredible.

The non-stop circumnavigation of the thirty-year-old English merchant marine sailor Robin Knox-Johnston, which ended on April 22, 1969 in Falmouth, was unanimously considered the pinnacle of sailing art. It took the brave navigator three hundred and eleven days to circumnavigate the globe. Three hundred and eleven days of constant struggle with the ocean, with more than half of this time occurring in the “roaring forties” of the southern hemisphere. “It began to dawn on me,” wrote Francis Chichester in his diary, “why these desert latitudes were called the “Roaring Forties.” Of course, because of the roar of the wind in the gear.” Sailing in these stormy latitudes with squally western winds is far from easy for a large sailing ship, but for a tiny sailing ship it is the greatest test.

So, circumnavigating the world without a single stop, most of which took place in the “roaring forties,” is this not the limit of possibilities for a single navigator?

However, on October 18, 1970, a circumnavigation began, incomparably more difficult than the Knox-Johnston voyage. On this day, on a British Steel yacht 17.7 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and with a draft of 2.4 meters, Scottish sailor Chay Blythe went out into the ocean from the English shores. Although his route, in general, coincides with the path traversed by Knox-Johnston, the whole point is that he walked in the opposite direction: from east to west.

Chichester, Knox-Johnston and, finally, the famous clipper ships of the 19th century sailed, driven by stormy westerly winds. Blythe had to constantly go against them.

Blythe and British Steel underwent their first serious test while rounding the formidable Cape Horn. A strong southwest wind pressed the yacht against the deserted rocky islands off the ominous cape, but Blythe, constantly maneuvering, did not allow himself to be trapped. As soon as the navigator took a breath, the wind intensified, turning into a storm. Huge waves rolled over British Steel. One of them, of incredible height, fell on the yacht with furious force and disabled the automatic steering device. The same wave threw the yachtsman over the cockpit, and he cut his face. Deprived of automatic steering, Chay Blythe was forced to stand on the steering wheel. This happened on December 24, 1970, and there was still a long way to go.

Particularly difficult trials befell the navigator in the Indian Ocean. One storm followed another, throwing British Steel back. The yacht moved among gray hills of waves with white foaming crests. The wind tears off the ridges and throws them onto the yacht with terrible force. Blythe doesn't risk moving around the deck.

It was the seventh month of the voyage. He is tormented by loneliness. “It seems that besides me, there is not a single living soul here,” the navigator wrote in his diary.

Only on the night of May 8-9, 1971, when the ocean calmed down, did he finally see the ship. To attract attention, Chay Blythe fired a rocket and, for good measure, also detonated a small portion of dynamite. It was spotted from the Soviet fishing vessel Zarechinsk. Chay Blythe happily chatted on the radio with Russian fishermen who wished him a good trip. “Talking to people always makes me feel better,” Blythe wrote. “Soon I’ll be in Atlantic again.”

However, a lot of time passed before British Steel reached British shores.

The unprecedented voyage against winds and currents, which lasted 292 days, ended on August 6, 1971. What incredible flight will we witness tomorrow? A unique bid for tomorrow's record voyage has already been made by French yachtsman Bernard Moitessier, a participant in the 1968–1969 round-the-world non-stop race. For a long time he had better chances of winning than Knox-Johnston. In any case, in early March 1969, his ketch Joshua (named, of course, in honor of Joshua Slocum) rounded Cape Horn. However, after this, when all that was left to do before Plymouth was to cross the Atlantic Ocean, Moitessier turned back. “I’m not going to Plymouth,” said the navigator. “Now that the road is well-trodden and I know I can go fast, I don’t need to go to Plymouth for all this noise.” I hate records. I'm going to Tahiti." It was not until September 1969 that Moitessier moored at the Papeete Yacht Club Pier, having sailed 54,000 miles without stopping. This would be just enough to make almost one and a half “orbits” around the planet.

The number of sea robinsons increases every year. For example, in the homeland of Andrzej Urbanczyk, the recently deceased navigator Leonid Teliga was replaced by a whole galaxy of single yachtsmen. Three yachts under the Polish flag took part in the 1972 transatlantic race: Krzysztof Baranowski on the Polonaise, Zbigniew Puchalski on the Miranda and Teresa Remiszewska on the Komodor.

Sailing across the ocean is considered an extremely difficult event, almost the pinnacle of yachting skill and even almost a feat. Lord, we are being fooled again! And their own. Well, okay, it’s too much to tell the young ladies, but among our own people, maybe we’ll already reveal this terrible secret, kept by so many generations of sailors?

The secret is that crossing the ocean in the right season, in the right direction and on a reliable, well-equipped boat is simple and, in general, quite monotonous, if not boring. Walking on the open ocean is much calmer, safer and more comfortable than spinning in an archipelago or at sea, not to mention coastal sailing, or, God forbid, rivers or suburban reservoirs.

What fears appear before your eyes when you imagine crossing the ocean?

Let's try to look them in the face.

Weather disasters - a storm with huge waves or a dead calm...

Is it possible to die from Russian frosts? Can. This has been experienced more than once by strangers who decided to go to war against us. Since then, everyone around firmly knows that there are terrible frosts in Russia. Fine. But you and I know that it’s impossible to freeze here in the summer. It's absolutely impossible. With all my desire. But we also “know” that a storm or calm can happen in the ocean! My friends, we are just as foreign to the ocean, and we are just as mistaken. I’ll tell you the most important secret of all sailors - in the right season, and with an understanding of the passage routes, it is impossible to get into a severe storm or calm on the ocean. No way. With all my desire. Well, at least as long as the climate of our planet remains stable.

After realizing this fact, everything becomes very simple.

Look carefully!

Even more careful!!

This is roughly what the transoceanic transition looks like.

In the right season, and when moving in the right direction in tropical latitudes, across a deserted surface stretching to the horizon, you will be carried around the clock, day and night, by a smooth tailwind or monsoon with a force of 15-20, rarely 25 knots, with waves of 3-4 , rarely 5 points. The (cruise) speed of the boat will be between 5-7 knots, and you will cover a little over a hundred miles per day. The wind will increase slightly towards dawn, staying within ten degrees throughout the day. Once you set the sails and adjusted the autopilot, you can go weeks without touching anything else. Make sure that the sheets, autopilot drives and sails at the points of contact with the rigging do not fray, and try not to lie down. I was mainly worried about my ear, which was crawling on the pillow all day long. The solution was an airplane pillow with a hole in the middle.

The seasons and directions of transitions will be discussed separately for each ocean, but there is one general and very important rule. The seasons in the ocean change very dramatically. This is very unusual for residents of mid-latitudes - there are no long off-season periods in the ocean when you can still get through, but with less comfort. It won't work like that in the ocean. If it is said that the South Pacific Seas are closed from December to March, this means that on the fifth of December something could arrive that would at least take away the Saints. Don’t pull the devil’s mustache - if our website says that the season is over or has not yet begun, then there is no need to go out into the ocean. If you go during a favorable season, then (in tropical latitudes) it is IMPOSSIBLE to encounter a weather anomaly.

Still scary? It is clear that it is scary - this is a psychological barrier in front of the enormity of the Ocean, and no matter how much the experienced people talk and reassure, from one figure of two thousand miles of the upcoming transition one becomes uneasy.

What else could happen to you?

If you choose and equip a boat in accordance with the recommendations that will be given on this site, then even watches are not particularly needed on the open ocean. Don't believe me? Let's think about what kind of trouble can happen to a yacht, at least theoretically.

Danger of collision with ship.

On the open ocean, outside the zones of trade routes, meeting a ship is a fairly rare event. If a ship passes somewhere in the distance, it will be detected by electronics, which we will talk about separately when equipping our dream yacht, and this will not be a danger, but rather a reason for discussion. When does the “open” ocean begin? One hundred and fifty miles from the nearest shore, where fishermen and theoretically possible pirates cannot swim (the cost of fuel at such a distance begins to exceed the cost of the catch), we can already say that you are alone. Well, unless you're part of some stupid rally! And so, you just need to keep an eye on whether you are crossing (or walking along) trade route zones. We will talk about these zones separately.

Risk of collision with floating object or whale.

There is no way to protect yourself from this. No way. No amount of staring into the darkness, no amount of radar or echo sounder will save you. Thermal imager? Well, maybe. Only then you have to stare at it without stopping for a second, because the yacht will pass those hundred meters during which something flashes on the screen in thirty seconds. It's not real. It is much more effective to initially choose the right boat (we will talk about this in the “Dream Yacht” section), which, in the event of an encounter with a particularly large object, will not lose the rudder or keel, and will be strong enough not to crack like an eggshell. The good news is that the oceans are still fairly clear of large man-made debris, and whales generally have good hearing. So this scenario is more for films.

Yacht malfunction.

Rigging ruptures, autopilot and spar failures, electrical problems, hull troubles (especially in stressed areas), torn sails... Yes, this can and does happen. This means only one thing - you did not prepare your boat well, did not follow the recommendations that will be given on this resource, and did not test the boat before going out to the ocean. This is bad. It's their own fault - they should have worked better on the shore.

Preparing a yacht for a trans-oceanic crossing must be done seriously and slowly, conducting training trips, during which the yacht must be heavily loaded, testing its strength. This is especially true if you have just purchased the boat and you do not know its diseases! Unfortunately, this also applies to newly built yachts - the quality of work at shipyards leaves much to be desired, including from well-known manufacturers, where they run a conveyor belt, sometimes losing quality.

If you choose, equip and prepare the boat correctly, and do not overload the equipment with extra sails, trying to set another stupid record, then, most likely, nothing will happen to your yacht - you are sailing at full speed in a moderate wind, which means that the loads for all boat systems are thirty percent of the calculated ones.

Unexpected illness or injury.

Illness is always extremely unpleasant. But, you need to understand that there are no ordinary flus or colds in the ocean - where does the microbe come from there? And the number of unexpected (without early symptoms) diseases is not at all as great as it seems, and we will also talk about them. Let's talk about the first aid kit. But the teeth must be done in advance!

Injuries are a very real danger, especially at first, until the body has gained experience moving on a swinging platform. Therefore, every movement you make on the yacht should be thoughtful, confident, smooth and soft. Do you know how to immediately distinguish an experienced yachtsman from a beginner? A beginner stomps, but an experienced person’s movements around the yacht cannot be heard. On a boat, a person turns into a primate - you should always have at least three points of support. No running on two legs! You should always brace yourself with your hand, butt, thigh, back, or even your teeth. The surfaces of the yacht must be clean - your life may depend on a smear of slippery mucus left on the deck from a caught fish. Although, Annushka can spill oil on the Patriarchs.

Falling overboard.

May happen. And, with almost one hundred percent probability, this is a slow and painful death. Finding a person who has fallen overboard in the ocean is almost impossible. And in the dark it is absolutely impossible. But it all depends on you, no one will deliberately push you overboard. (Although, options are possible - watch the psychological climate in the crew!) In ordinary life, you don’t stand close to the edge of the platform, do you? Do you wear seat belts in your car? This is exactly the case when fear is a good advisor. Better let your favorite baseball cap fly overboard, or let the fish fall off, to hell with it. We have made it a rule that before the onset of dusk, a person who goes on deck must be wearing a comfortable, fitted vest, equipped with a light bulb, a “man overboard” system, and fastened with a safety belt. We’ll talk separately about other rules that must be followed so as not to see your yacht disappearing at dusk.

Fire on the ship.

Despite the abundance of water around, a fire is really scary, especially on a plastic boat. Putting out burning plastic is extremely difficult, especially if a hard-to-reach compartment catches fire, where they love to live and where electrical wires rub against each other as they move. As on land, fires are usually caused by faulty electrical wiring, which is much more likely to occur in a salty environment, or by a cooking stove. We'll also talk about this separately. But you can buy a couple of good fire extinguishers now.

Lightning?— In the open ocean, the probability is low, but we’ll also talk about protection from God’s wrath.

What else? Meteorite? Sea monster? Aliens? Ghost ship? Don't worry, this won't happen to you. A submarine can surface, yes. This happened to us in Pacifica. Only we never saw it - just wild radar activity in the middle of the ocean - and there was no one. What else could it be?

So, one hundred and fifty miles from the coast, fish, read, write, draw, play the guitar, watch movies or listen to audio books. Think about the eternal. Love each other. Look at the ocean, admire it, remember these wonderful minutes that turn into hours and days. “With your eyes, mouth and skin, drink in the spaciousness.” Live! And you will not notice how the transition flashes by, and then you will remember it as one of the most pleasant adventures in your life.

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