Ahoy there, HowNotToSailers! So today is not only the 100th episode of the How Not To Sail Minute (which I thank you greatly for listening to)…but also the birthday of one of the patron saints of cruising.
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Born this day in 1844 in Nova Scotia, and later becoming a U.S. citizen, this fellow was the first person to circumnavigate the globe…solo. And the book he wrote about his adventure became a touchstone for generations of more or less crazy solo sailors.
He sailed all the way across the Atlantic to Gibraltar before deciding he’d be better off circmnavigating westbound…so he crossed the Atlantic again, down to Brazil, and then basically had to weather the Straits of Magellan twice due to getting blown backwards in the Furious Fifties.
Beyond 40 degrees south there is no law.
Beyond 50 degrees south there is no God.
—19th century whaler’s saying
But he did eventually get into the Pacific, and circle back through the Indian Ocean and under Africa and back home. And along the way, he learned a lot…like how carpet tacks make an excellent defense against shoeless robbers.
I highly recommend his book Sailing Alone Around The World…but meanwhile, let’s hoist a mug to the first sailor to do it…born February 20th…
Joshua Slocum.
Get this famous fellow’s book HERE. (Just finished reading it again myself…)
