Solo Circumnavigation

[roverhi]

AFAIK Moitessier had no children. His first wife who accompanied him on Joshua's first voyage had child/children from a previous relationship. The kid(s) went to boarding school while they sailed Joshua to Tahiti and back. Assume she wasn't hurting for money as Bernard worked as a drug salesman and later as a charter boat/sailing school for income.

Don't know if the funds to build Joshua came exclusively out of his earnings but wouldn't be surprized if they did. Bernard was a resourceful, independent cuss who was very good at making something out of nothing. The builder of Joshua's hull gave him a sweetheart deal and turned it into a short production run of Joshua clones. Believe Bernard did all the rest of the work to get her on the water. The rigging on Joshua was primitive and largely done with what Bernard could scrounge, the masts were telephone poles, rigging was galvanized. Joshua had no motor till someone gave him one later. Electronics were anathema to him so money wasted there, not even a radio.

We met Bernard on Ahe in the Tuamotus where he was living with his, i believe, second wife. He was an eccentric obsessed with utopian ideas to improve the lot of the less fortunate. He wasn't living in a squalid little hut. He was living as the locals lived, a simple existance on a tropical Atoll while he tried to create a self sustaining agricultural economy for the locals. Don't know if his wife, a nurse, really bought into the lifestyle but they seemed happy for the moment. It was obvious to us that the experiment wasn't going all that well with the thin soil and sporadic rainfall. The locals addiction to canned corn beef and Nescaffe doctored with sweetened condensed milk didn't make them big believers in organic farming, either. It's not a lifestyle I'd be happy with and ultimately not for his wife as they divorced but an example of Bernard's eccentric nature.

Read Moitessiers "Sailing to the Reefs" if you want to see how resourceful he was in building his boats. Actually, highly recommend 'Sailing to the Reefs' for a glimpse of life in Colonial Indochine and cruising from a simpler time that is lost to us forever.

[Triton318]

Bob....

[foolishsailor]

@roverhi

I am surprised that you didnt meet stephen, his son, or IIeana, his the wife, while you were on Ahe as he was only there for about 3 or so years before he left.

Nice that you met him but Im sorry, you are wrong about his family and history.

I have never meet him but know two french sailors that I spent 5 years with in malaysia with who knew him well told stories about him. He was defo OCD or close. He had a habit of showing up in the cockpit of a boat of people he liked and would proceed to go down below and make himself coffee and then wake them up, if they werent already awake, and ask them where "we" were going to sail to today.

Edit: sorry just reread and saw you speak of Ileana. But to be more specific - he left first and she alone with Stephen then divorced him.

[foolishsailor]

Also,

Regarding funds...

Ileana tried to encourage Bernard to go back and develop movies from his books but he choose not to as he didnt want to be involved in the commercial aspect of his life.

As I said - there is so much to admire if it werent for the dirty wake he left.

[Celestialsailor]

FS...I'll go out on the limb here and say you are being just a little critical but I know you are probably receptive to that being a mod here and involved with what goes on in these threads.
What I want to say is...I know you are a dedicated father and husband and my hat is off to you. I would also wish you never have to go through the pain of a divorce and being separated from the children you love. I have gone through this and yes, I had well meaning friends and at times self righteous about what I was going through claiming I abandoned my family. Well at least until they had to go through it. We are all cut from different cloths. We all make different choices...some good...some not so. Even when things seem perfect in a long relationship, one or the other changes direction on their path. Then it is a semi death called coping for the other.

[category4jay]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

She didnt complete a circumnavigation, and she was imho just a media event.


At least the ever decreasing age of circumnavigators has apparently stopped before any of the chillin's were killed unlike the USA's race for children to fly acoross the USA finally killing a 7 year old 'pilot'. see attached

MarkJ
1) Im curious why you do not think she circumnavigated. I know there is a technical definition but I thought she complied with that.

2) What killing of a 7 year old pilot in the USA do you refer to?
Thanks

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by category4jay

2) What killing of a 7 year old pilot in the USA do you refer to?
Thanks

7-Year-Old Pilot Crashes, Killing 3 And Ending Cross-Country Quest - The Tech

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by category4jay

MarkJ

Originally Posted by category4jay

1) Im curious why you do not think she circumnavigated. I know there is a technical definition but I thought she complied with that.

2) What killing of a 7 year old pilot in the USA do you refer to?
Thanks

She didn't complete the circ to the degree required to claim the 'record' of a circ. Its was a technical point she needed to sail around further north than she went.

The 7 year old pilot as showing the link between another race to find the youngest to do some arduous journey. The youngest sailing circumnavigator was getting younger and younger... as did the 'youngest pilot to fly across the USA' until the age was so low that a 7 year old tried and died, as the link above shows.

I dont want the youngest circumnavigator stuff to go on because it heads in the same way.

Being a person with a media/entertainment background I am very wary of the 'fame' game.

Thanks for taking an interest in my post and questioning me about it


Mark

[Exile]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

She didn't complete the circ to the degree required to claim the 'record' of a circ. Its was a technical point she needed to sail around further north than she went.

The 7 year old pilot as showing the link between another race to find the youngest to do some arduous journey. The youngest sailing circumnavigator was getting younger and younger... as did the 'youngest pilot to fly across the USA' until the age was so low that a 7 year old tried and died, as the link above shows.

I dont want the youngest circumnavigator stuff to go on because it heads in the same way.

Being a person with a media/entertainment background I am very wary of the 'fame' game.

Thanks for taking an interest in my post and questioning me about it


Mark

According to her book, the governing body that regulates/records such events had already removed age as a criteria before she began her voyage, with the intended purpose of discouraging such attempts by younger & younger kids. I did not know that she technically did not "circumnavigate" according to this organization's rules. She did sail aound the world in that she started & ended in Sydney & therefore obviously crossed every line of longitude.

[Andrew B.]

Originally Posted by Exile

According to her book, the governing body that regulates/records such events had already removed age as a criteria before she began her voyage, with the intended purpose of discouraging such attempts by younger & younger kids. I did not know that she technically did not "circumnavigate" according to this organization's rules. She did sail aound the world in that she started & ended in Sydney & therefore obviously crossed every line of longitude.

And one could cross every line of longitude by sailing around Antarctica, but it wouldn't count as any official around the world record.

From the WSSRC:"a. RTW - Round the World, eastbound and westbound 21600NM. 2 separate records.
To sail around the World, a vessel must start from and return to the same
point, must cross all meridians of longitude and must cross the Equator. It
may cross some but not all meridians more than once (i.e. two roundings of
Antarctica do not count). The shortest orthodromic track of the vessel
must be at least 21,600 nautical miles in length calculated based on a
'perfect sphere'. In calculating this distance, it is to be assumed that the
vessel will sail around Antarctica in latitude 63 degrees south.
A vessel starting from any point where the direct orthodromic distance is
too short shall pass one single island or other fixed point on a required side
so as to lengthen his orthodromic track to the minimum distance.
No starting point will be permitted more south than 45 ° south.
1 degree of longitude at 63 degrees south will be taken as 27.24NM"

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Exile

According to her book, the governing body that regulates/records such events had already removed age as a criteria before she began her voyage, with the intended purpose of discouraging such attempts by younger & younger kids. I did not know that she technically did not "circumnavigate" according to this organization's rules. She did sail aound the world in that she started & ended in Sydney & therefore obviously crossed every line of longitude.

And she crossed the equator (twice obviously)

[Exile]

Originally Posted by Wotname

And she crossed the equator (twice obviously)

Yes, I should have mentioned that. A lap around Christmas Island before heading back south to Cape Horn.

[Showsea]

Originally Posted by thomm225

That's right because Slocum was lost at sea..............

There is evidence that suggests Slocum was run over by a steamer during a storm. You should research the man. He was the 1st and he did it on no budget using nothing but a tin clock.

The sea gave him life, it seems appropriate that it also took it.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

FS...I'll go out on the limb here and say you are being just a little critical but I know you are probably receptive to that being a mod here and involved with what goes on in these threads.
What I want to say is...I know you are a dedicated father and husband and my hat is off to you. I would also wish you never have to go through the pain of a divorce and being separated from the children you love. I have gone through this and yes, I had well meaning friends and at times self righteous about what I was going through claiming I abandoned my family. Well at least until they had to go through it. We are all cut from different cloths. We all make different choices...some good...some not so. Even when things seem perfect in a long relationship, one or the other changes direction on their path. Then it is a semi death called coping for the other.

This post has troubled me for a bit. I didn't think a simple thank you was enough so I have quoted it to remind FS and similar-minded folk about walking in someone else's boat shoes.

[foolishsailor]

Sorry for your history and pain, it is everymans biggest fear - but there is a big difference between being estranged from your family due to a difficult divorce and flat out just abandoning your children never to see them again - the later of which is what happened.

Dont have to like my opinion about the man, its only my opionion.