THE PLAN:
The crew of Maverick is going to begin looking for a weather window for
our departure about March 15 of 2001. The considerations guiding us to this
date are poetic, as suggested by Tony's Theresa: 2001: A Sea Odyssey. They
are gerontological, as in most likely we won't live forever. And they are
meteorological, based on the need to be out of the southern half of the north
Pacific before hurricane season starts in June, and not to be at our intended
first landfall, the Marquesas, before hurricane season ends in the South
Pacific in April or May. We are pushing this second date just a bit, perhaps,
to give ourselves the maximum amount of time the in the South Pacific, since
because of similar weather restraints we need to be in Darwin, Australia by
Fall. The plan was concocted by routing officer Terry Shrode, who in so doing
eschews the tried and true procedure of coast-hopping down to Mexico in the
fall, wintering in a suitable luxurious resort, and heading west in the
spring. Mr. Shrode was inspired by the dictum of Admiral Nelson of the Royal
Navy, who declared, "Damn the maneuvers, just go straight at 'em!" Unlike the
strategy of those more cautious cruisers staying close to shore, our
itinerary offers little hope for an easy return to a safe harbor once we
leave.
We expect the passage to the Marquesas in
French Polynesia
to take a
minimum of 30 days. The maximum could be double that. So assuming that we
have perfect weather on the 15th of March, and we have favorable winds and no
trouble en route, we'd be in the Marquesas in mid-April. A more reasonable
scenario puts us there closer to the end of the month or later. After our
stay in the Marquesas for reprovisioning, repair and rest, we sail to the
Tuamotus, the Society Islands,
Cook Islands,
Samoa,
Tonga,
Fiji,
Vanuatu, the
Solomon Islands,
Papua New Guinea,
and then to Darwin, Australia, with
various stops in these areas depending on how things are going.
It is bad form in cruising, so it is said, to announce one's plans. This
is because the likelihood of their successful completion is contingent on so
many imponderables, and that once having announced a goal, one risks
perceiving the whole enterprise as a failure if the larger target is not
reached. Whatever.
We're prepared to say, disdaining tradition, that we'd like to make it
around the world. Given enough time and enough money, brains and youth, the
goal is certainly achievable. But of these we have quite finite amounts, and
consequently I'd rate our chances at a bit south of even. Things can happen,
even twenty miles outside the Gate, and perhaps in a later post I'll make a
list of what some of them are--except for the ones we don't know about. In
the event something comes between us and our goals, you'll be there to share
the pain if we come to a bad end; or not, if we come to a really bad end.
The idea is, then, to continue from Darwin up to Bali
and thence across
the South China Sea to Singapore.
From there it's the Strait of Malacca,
Malaysia,
Thailand,
Sri Lanka,
Oman,
Yemen (why not visit friendly Aden?), up
the Red Sea,
through the Suez Canal
to the Mediterranean. We would like to
arrive in the Med in late spring of 2002. The summer is to be spent
transiting that fine sea, along the Turkish coast
and through the Greek
Islands, past Italy
and France
to Spain. In late fall we head through the
Strait of Gibraltar to Madeira, then on to the Canaries and across the
Atlantic Ocean
to the Caribbean,
the coast of Venezuela and the
Lesser
Antilles, the coast of Columbia
and finally the Panama Canal. Arriving at
last again in the Pacific we must decide whether to sail along the coast of
Central America and up the Baja Peninsula, or to take the old clipper ship
route 1000 miles offshore to Clipperton Island where we would tack and make
our way back to San Francisco and home. It really doesn't seem possible, now
that I think about it.
We have allowed two and one half years for the voyage. This is about as
fast as it can be done unless one mounts an all-out racing program, which
takes a lot of money and is for those with a more blood and guts approach,
and for that matter more hemoglobin and more internal organs. The schedule we
must maintain restricts us to, by cruiser standards, short stops and little
rest. Because we wish not be caught anywhere in hurricane or cyclone season,
it also means that should there be any major gear failures, health or family
problems, untimely weather anomalies, or bad luck, we may not make a required
weather window and will be trapped where we are for another year, perhaps
putting the ultimate goal out of
reach.
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