Updated August 3, 2005 DONNA WILL SAIL SOLO AROUND THE WORLD beginning November of 2005
Virgin Island Based American Solo Sailor, Donna Lange, is heading North to New England to complete preparation for a One-Stop World Circumnavigation in the Roaring Forties.
Donna's 2-year plan - July 15, 2005
I have just set the time frame to head off again on the first leg of a very challenging itinerary.My goal is to sail solo around the world on Inspired Insanity, my Southern Cross 28-foot sloop. A real circumnavigation of the world!!
The first leg of this journey will be to New Zealand requiring 4-ｽ months of sailing from Bristol, Rhode Island.I'll go southeast heading toward Cape Verde island of Sao Vincent (off west coast of Africa) and continue South staying west until I知 past the southern tip of Africa.I値l then head east once I hit the Westerlies of the Southern Ocean, then on around the Cape of Good Hope. From there it is a clear sail to New Zealand (in a manner of speaking). I should see land near Ausi and Tasmania but I値l be on to Auckland on the North Island of New Zealand. A rebuild will be needed I am sure.
I値l enjoy New Zealand until the next summer comes around (winter 2006/07 in north hemisphere).Then I知 off.On past Australia well to my north and then around Cape Horn (Southern tip of South America).Another 4-ｽ months for sure. I am going around the Horn west to east with the Southern Ocean current. Once past Cape Horn, I will swing a bit northeast then north, passing the Cape Verde's (Africa) again.
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Note: I can't help interrupting Donna's dialog (web administrators prerogative) and inserting a couple of internet article comments about sailing Cape Horn:
There is always a cape waiting for you in life, but if it is Cape Horn, the cape at the southern tip of the American continent and if you are lucky enough to round it, then you will never forget it.
There are four or five places all over the world in the presence of which man feels perturbed, surrounded as they are by a perennial mystical aura of spirituality. If, as it is the case of Cape Horn, they are the craved destination, the obliged passage, the insuperable difficulty, everything takes the aspect and the importance of the sanctuary and of the unconsciously supernatural place. After all, its positioning of 55ｰ56' south and 67ｰ19' west, the particular orographic formation and the intensity of atmospheric phenomena which surround it, turn Cape Horn unique and matchless. Cape Horn, loved and hated by seamen over the last four hundred years. _____________________________________
I値l find my way back to the east coast of the America痴 around March or April of 2007. It will be a tad early sailing in the NE for the likes of the Caribbean in me, but at that point, cold will have taken on a whole new meaning.
I don't rattle off this itinerary lightly. Neither do I suggest any hint of naivety regarding what I am suggesting I am going to do. The fact is, the weather will be so much more intense and colder than what I have already come to expect from even the North Oceans. I'll be spending a hell of a lot longer time offshore, be farther away from any land mass than I have ever been. A lot of first time things are about to happen. But, everything we do has a "first time".