Teen solo sailors are NOT the only news...
by Nancy Knudsen, Editor on 20 May 2010
There's been a lot in the news about solo teen sailors this week.
Califoria's Abby Sunderland and her Open 40 Wild Eyes are almost ready for departure from Cape Town on the next leg of her circumnavigation.
In the meantime, Australians were giving their returning solo teen, Jessica Watson, a hero's welcome, and past teen circumnavigators Mike Perham and Jesse Martin were on hand to welcome her home. Jessica arrived back into Sydney Harbour just days before her seventeenth birthday.
The amazing mainstream media attention given to these teenager sailor adventurers might make you think there's nothing else happening out there on the oceans.
It's not true - there's lots of other news, both good and bad. Good news is that Reid Stowe is about to sail into New York at the end of his extraordinary 1152 days at sea, making his the longest non-stop sea voyage in history, and Ian Thomson is on target to establish a world speed record for a non-stop unassisted circumnavigation of Australia.
A British skipper tells the story behind his family's 'miracle' rescue in the Southern Ocean after they hit an iceberg which sank their boat, and Phoenica, the replica 600BC Phoenician sailing boat is half way up the Atlantic on its way to completing its circumnavigation of Africa, believed to have been achieved before, 2,600 years ago.
Bad news is the almost total destruction of a marina and its 275 boats by a tornado(see the picture!); and that a powerboat driver who is alleged to have been responsible for a fatal collision with a stationary sailing boat has been sacked from the Sheriff's office, but still not charged.
Great practical stories this week too - a clever new design Boat Bag that will save you the expense of regular antifouling, some good advice about emergency navigation lights, and, for Americans, with Safe Boating Week coming up, there's some hard numbers to prove their safety campaigns are working. Then there is a competition promising great prizes...
Browse down to find the stories that interest you, and...
Sweet Sailing!
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