It’s safe to say that most people will never circle the globe in a sailboat built with their own two hands.
Paul Thackaberry’s preparing to do exactly that for the second time in his life.
Then again, Thackaberry isn’t most people.
“I’m crazy,” he said with a chuckle.
The 50-year-old Oxford resident is currently building a 21-foot, 3-inch sailboat, which he plans to single-handedly sail on a 27,000-mile nonstop voyage around the world that he hopes will last between 250 and 270 days.
If he’s successful, Thackaberry will break three world sailing records ? one for sailing solo around the world in the smallest boat, one for doing it in the least number of days and one for rounding Africa’s Cape Horn in the smallest boat.
An Englishman named Sir Robin Knox Johnson set the first two records in the late 1960s when it took him 313 days to sail solo around the world in a 32-foot, 8-inch boat. A Japanese sailor currently holds the record for the smallest sailboat to round Cape Horn.
When asked what motivated him to undertake such a journey, Thackaberry replied, “I want to be the only man in the world who’s ever done it.”
Thackaberry said he also wants to bring some sailing records to the United States to restore some national pride and standing in a world sport typically dominated by the French.
“Screw the French,” he said with a smile.
This will be Thackaberry’s second voyage around the world.
His first was in 1990-91 when he and his 50-foot sailboat “Volcano” (which he built) took first place in the Corinthian Class (40-to-50-foot, non-sponsored boats) during the British Oxygen Competition, a solo around-the-world race.
However, Thackaberry’s around-the-world journey back then was not nonstop. Between the race’s start and finish in Newport, Rhode Island, the contestants stopped in Cape Town, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; and Punta del Este, Uruguay.
“At this time, I’m the only American alive who’s ever won a single-handed around-the-world race,” he said. “Right now you have a better chance of meeting an astronaut than someone who’s sailed single-handedly around the world.”
Thackaberry estimated there are currently a little more than 100 people still living who have sailed the globe solo.
“There are more astronauts on the planet today,” he said. “We’re a rarer breed.”
But just because Thackaberry’s sailed around the world before, don’t think his second voyage is going to be a piece of cake.
After leaving Newport, Rhode Island sometime in late July or early August, Thackaberry will sail south until the only land south of him is the frozen continent of Antarctica.
He will then sail around the globe through the southern Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans until returning to Newport, Rhode Island.
“Nobody’s every taken this route,” he said. “But this is the only way to completely circumnavigate the globe unless you want to go through the Panama and Suez canals. But that’s hard to do nonstop and single-handed.”
“When I leave the dock in Newport, I won’t touch land or take on any supplies, food or water until I get back,” Thackaberry said.
Thackaberry will be sailing in the “roughest water on the planet.”
“We’re talking 35-knot winds and 35-foot waves on normal days, then it gets rough,” he said. “Down there, there are no continents or islands to stop storms so they just build and build.”
“Every fifth day the (weather) fronts come through and the winds build up to 50-60 knots and the waves up to 40-60 feet,” he said, noting a Russian vessel measured a 202-foot wave in the southern waters. “It’s not totally uncommon.”
“The weather is the main obstacle. You just accept it and deal with it,” Thackaberry said.
A “shore crew” in Michigan will help Thackaberry combat the elements by e-mailing him the most up-to-date weather information provided by satellites.
“They can send me the information in a zip file, I’ll print it out and plot my course based on the weather,” he said.
In order to receive e-mails from shore, Thackaberry said he needs to purchase a satellite phone (cost: approximately $800) and some prepaid minutes ($1.50 each).
“I’m trying to get a sponsor to buy or donate the communications equipment,” he said.
When he’s not dealing with the violent weather, Thackaberry also has to be on the lookout for killer whales.
“They don’t set out to destroy a boat, but if one mistakes you for a predator, they can and will attack,” he said. “They can wreck a boat.”
Besides natural obstacles, Thackaberry will also have to contend with man-made dangers such as freighters.
“If you look at the horizon and see nothing, in 15 minutes a freighter can hit you. That’s how fast they’re moving across the ocean,” he said. “You can only see roughly 15 miles always because of the earth’s curvature.”
Should Thackaberry’s boat meet with disaster, he said help is between six and nine days away if he radios a Mayday.
“You can get in a life raft, but you’ll be dead in four hours and that’s with a survival suit on,” Thackaberry said. “Without the suit, you might live 45 minutes, if you’re really lucky ? or unlucky.”
“You don’t count on rescue. You’re there on your own ? you, the boat and the ocean,” he added.
Thackaberry estimated there’s a 20 percent chance he’ll die undertaking this journey.
But don’t mistake all this for a death wish on Thackaberry’s part.
“Life’s to live so I’m living. Somebody’s got to do it,” he said.
So what kind of foods do you take on an around-the-world cruise for one? Lots of canned goods.
Seven hundred canned goods to be precise, many of which will be soup and rice. Planning to consume about two cans per day, Thackaberry estimates he’s going to pack about a year’s worth of food.
Most of Thackaberry’s meals will consist of a “packed mush” made by mixing one can of soup, one can of rice and one can of water.
“You let that cook in a pot until it goes thick, that way it doesn’t slide off the plate,” he said. “Basically, it has the same consistency going in as it does coming out. But it meets all your basic nutritional needs and fills you up.”
Thackaberry said he’ll also bring along sardines, canned corn beef, canned bacon, powdered milk, pancake mix, oat meal, noodles, canned pudding and vitamins, to make sure he doesn’t get scurvy.
Although he’s bringing a year’s worth of food, Thackaberry is hoping his trip will last between 250 and 270 days, assuming he can travel between 100 and 110 miles per day.
“My dream is to do it in 200 days. But that’s unrealistic,” he said. “I’d like to see 250 days, but I wouldn’t be upset with 270 days.”
Another of his dreams is to travel 200 miles in one day.
“I think I’m capable of it,” he said. “It would be rare and take a lot of work.”
Hard work will be the one constant throughout Thackabarry’s journey.
“You have to be a fiberglass repairman, seamstress, sail-maker, electrician, navigator, cook and the maid,” he said. “You have to do it all because you’re the only one out there. Whatever breaks you have to be able to fix.”
Being a one-man crew also won’t leave Thackaberry much time to sleep.
“You sleep whenever you can because you might not be able to later,” Thackaberry said. “You never no when you’ll have to repair something or the weather will keep you up for three or four days at a time.”
“I sleep 20 minutes at a time,” he said. “You get into a mode where you’re never asleep, but you learn how to rest,” he said. “Your ears are always listening for a change in pitch. Your body is always feeling for a change in heel.”
When he’s not working or sleeping, Thackaberry will be reading.
“The last time I read 150 books in 180 days at sea,” he said. “When I’m done with a paperback, I just throw it over the side. They’re biodegradable.”
Thackaberry said a lot of people couldn’t handle the “total deprivation” involved in the type of voyage he’s planning.
“Your totally alone out in the middle of the ocean in the worst weather on the planet period,” he said. “If any nation made somone do this, it would be considered cruel and unusual punishment. The right-to-lifers and Amnesty International would be all over your case.”
It’s hard to believe the thing that led to Thackaberry’s around-the-world trips and his interest in sailing was a Marlboro cigarette ad.
“I saw an ad where the guy was sailing and I thought that looks like fun,” he said. “So, I went to the bank and borrowed $3,000 to buy a boat. I went to the library and got a book on how to sail. My third time out, I sank the boat in Cass Lake. But, I continued to study and got good at it.”
“I’ve done everything you’ve sees in a cigarette ad except smoke a cigarette,” Thackaberry said listing his other hobbies as horseback riding, driving a dune buggy, skiing and flying planes.
“I do anything that can kill you. I don’t golf, play tennis or bowl. That’s boring.”