300 days at sea

I have a copy of a movie called "All Is Lost" in my camper. I like it.

Many of my friends say the movie it too boring and does not have enough dialogue

Veebyes,

Yes and there's a huge difference between crossing the oceans in a 23' sloop with tiller steering vs having wheel steering and with having very minimal navigation equipment that was available in 1965 and being able to have just enough room for stowing enough food etc to barely make it across an ocean. Then there's not enough room onboard/the deck to keep from meeting yourself going from bow to stern plus not having enough vertical height in the tiny cabin below to even stand up at all the whole crossing.

VS

Having a huge 60' long wide boat with it's luxury and safety it offers and having the modern state of the art of today's electronics VS the 1965 simple basic navigational electronics equipped vessel and not even having engine propulsion capabilities nor the ability to carry fuel enough even if you did had a little 2hp etc fuel sipping kicker outboard engine. The 60 footer gives gobs of storage space below and far less violent wave action on the boat for being tossed about.

FAR from apples to apples and vastly more challenging on a 23' sailboat than in a big 60 footer. We are no strangers to boats as we live on Lake Michigan and we've had 9 sailboats alone so far and all but 2 were a whole lot bigger and much wider than his 23'. The smaller ones were a 14' Capri open day sail'er and a 21' Catalina which is close the Dove's size but our 21' Catalina had a pop top so we could actually stand up vertical below in the cabin. One of ours had 3 staterooms below and gobs of navigational equipment and 3 of them have an autopilot. Spent many years racing our larger sailboats in the sail club races and was an officer in the club having been in it from it's start back in the 1960's.

We are both rag hangers and stink potters and have been for over 55 years now. Best of both worlds!

Fizz wrote:
I signed up for his newsletters.

His first one...

I singed up too. I hope he makes it and I look forward to his newsletters. I like reading about these sort of things. My biggest interests and fantasies are about things I can't do myself.

travelnutz wrote:
23 foot sloop sailed by Robin Lee Graham 16 years old when he set sail. His sloop was named "Dove". 1974 movie. Set sail in the summer of 1965. yes, he did complete the sailing trip around the world. Los Angeles to Los Angeles.

Thanks, yes that was it.

I signed up for his newsletters.

His first one...

I would love to take on such a challenge! Thanks for posting his story.

I think one of the bigger mistakes an owner does when trying a voyage like this is being over confidant about their vessel. They never had a problem, even in bad weather, and think that transposes to an open ocean voyage.

I can tell you that, given the perfect bad conditions, even the big guys in steel boats turn tail and run. I was on one trip from Houston to Alexandria Egypt where we calculated that we could have ridden a bike for that distance faster than it took us to cross the Atlantic and Mediterranean. It was not a pretty trip. And then there are the Cape rollers....big swells that lift tankers and crack the hulls.

Doing this voyage in a small sailboat is a true act of courage, single handed, nearly madness. I wish him the best--trailing winds and following seas.

Big difference between sailing around the world making many stops & doing it NONSTOP. In the early 80s I had the pleasure of boarding Dodge Morgans boat American Promise only hours after he had completed an around the world trip NONSTOP. Departed Bermuda & returned Bermuda something like 140 days later, I think it was.

Custom built about 60' sloop designed to be single handed with all kinds of redundant features built into it. Amazing boat.

It was later donated to the US Naval Academy & converted for training.

23 foot sloop sailed by Robin Lee Graham 16 years old when he set sail. His sloop was named "Dove". 1974 movie. Set sail in the summer of 1965. yes, he did complete the sailing trip around the world. Los Angeles to Los Angeles.

"Dove"

The movie, we saw it too.