73 years old
- Thread starter jon hansen
- Start date
Around alone non-stop and unassisted with only paper and sextant! Dude!
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/29/golden-globe-race-jean-luc-van-den-heede-solo-yacht
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/29/golden-globe-race-jean-luc-van-den-heede-solo-yacht
Makes me feel a bit of a wuss. GPS, radar etc. Can't imagine Magellan, Drake etc who had to draw their own charts as they went.
The attitude of his time and the lack of knowledge of same. It's been the same throughout much of history. Its cost people their lives before him and since.
One man's idiocy is another man's boldness.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. It's all in the outcome.
When I was a youngun dreaming about circumnavigation, that was the only way it was done and you were just another guy who sailed around the world unless you broke some record or something. Granted, there have never been a lot of those club members, but it wasn't the lack of equipment that made them special.
-Will (Dragonfly)
Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. It's all in the outcome.
When I was a youngun dreaming about circumnavigation, that was the only way it was done and you were just another guy who sailed around the world unless you broke some record or something. Granted, there have never been a lot of those club members, but it wasn't the lack of equipment that made them special.
-Will (Dragonfly)
Yet again I refer to The Blind Horns Hate a great book about the Age of Exploration. There will never be a time of exploration like it - even if we go into space. We know something about space. They knew very little about the world. They had spies aboard. which related to the ultimate disfunction family - the Habsburgs. The captains could be brutal. But they couldn't find their way anywhere. It was the pilots, who were predominately Portuguese to know how to get around the world. It's fascinating history worthy of the King of Throngs type story telling. I would think it's ripe for a Netflix type drama.