Normality – and reflections on successful cruising   Wednesday, 17/01/2024

Things are back to normal. I’ve spent the last few days getting in touch with various technical people. So far, I’ve been visited by a local sailmaker (have had his quotes for two new sails and paid a 50% deposit) and a refrigeration technician, and am waiting on three more people. The weather here has been excellent: all last week it was sunny every day, with daytime temperatures peaking at 25 degrees. It then rained from Monday late afternoon until Tuesday afternoon, about 12mm falling – enough to green up the brown patches that were appearing on the grass everywhere. This is a very easy climate – much easier than dealing with tropical heat, which always means that you pour with sweat when you do anything physical. 

I don’t have very much to say, so I’ve given further consideration to some thoughts I had in the past couple of months. I will try to set them out as plainly as possible…

I’ve made it here! At times the prospect seemed daunting – especially the very long journey across the Pacific. But step by step, it was not as difficult as it seemed. At times we appeared to be going nowhere: I look back now and the difficulty leaving Fiji to come down to New Zealand – a cyclone and repeated autopilot trouble – appears in retrospect to be almost nothing, a minor blip in a long trend of progress. 

It does seem a good time for reflection on what is really important for successful cruising. Jimmy Cornell is a legendary man in the sailing community, the author of two books, World Cruising Routes and World Cruising Destinations. They are the twin bibles of the cruising community, to be found on virtually every (Anglo Saxon) boat. Interviewed recently, Cornell was asked: what makes for successful long range cruising? 

He replied that there are practical considerations, among which avoiding problems with crew is a key matter (something which I have obviously done by choosing to sail alone!). But above all, he said, those who are successful had in common “that vital frame of mind” which requires “such qualities as courage, perseverance, determination and self-confidence”. 

Whether I have these qualities, and to what extent, is debatable. But his words make very clear what is needed. In a nutshell, you need to believe that you can do it and you must be determined and persevere at all costs. That is what I have tried to do. For example, each time that I left Fiji I really believed that I was going to have a successful trip, despite knowing only too well that there was a good chance of autopilot trouble. I really thought about that the third time, when I was well en route – I was quite amazed that each time I had set out I had done so with full determination and an iron expectation of success. I thought: where did that come from? How did I manage to be so determined in spite of everything? And I realised that this determination was absolutely essential. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to set out repeatedly, and therefore would not have eventually made it.  

Things are always going to go wrong – there’s not much you can do about that. But what you do have is control over the way you respond. Something might feel like an awful setback, and it is natural to feel angry or upset or disappointed. I do my best to indulge those feelings for just half an hour, and then set them aside. Move on. Don’t dwell on them – instead, act. Do something, or make a resolution even, that makes things seem a little better, until you can fix the problem. Believe that you will fix it and that this is just a temporary setback. Ultimately, whatever happens, believe that things will all be fine eventually – that difficulties do not last.

It has surprised me that I have found reserves of determination and optimism that I otherwise would not have known that I had. It’s a good thing that we don’t know what is ahead of us: if I’d known exactly what was ahead before I left the U.K. I probably would not have set out. It would have seemed too much to surmount. Instead, things have simply happened, one by one, and each time it has seemed pretty clear what I needed to do. And I have just done it. So far, that has taken me a little over half way around the world, blown there merely by the wind. With luck, it will take me the rest of the way too.