To Venture Further...

Anyone who was at my retirement party 3 years ago would have heard me boldly declare that I was, one day, going to sail around Cape Horn. I have always had visions, dreams, call them what you will of sailing around the World. So, when an opportunity comes knocking you just have to grab it and hang on, that's always been my philosophy. While I was at the Sydney Boat Show earlier this year I met Tony Mowbray and was so impressed with his sailing expedition company I left my name on a contact list. Tony runs the trips out of Ushuaia, the World's southernmost city on the tip of Argentina in Tierra del Fuego - the Land of Fire. Two weeks ago I had a call from Tony's company offering me a half price ride to the Antarctic Peninsula via Cape Horn. So of course I contacted my US Navy mate Spanky and the rest is soon to be history. We sail out of Ushuaia on 13 Jan 2009 for a 24 day trip which will be one of those rare events some unfortunate people never have the good fortune, opportunity, desire or motivation to ever experience in their comfortable lives. I am in no doubt that this may be the toughest, most challenging thing I have ever done, but that's the sort of stuff that makes us get out of bed in the morning and sets us apart from the other animals...

We'll be sailing across Drake Passage, probably the most notorious stretch of water on the planet. Things that make you go HMMMMMM! Just looking at the geography you know that the winds, waves and currents are something special! You can get a live weather feed showing wind and wave heights on Passageweather.com, just click on the maps until you get to the southern tip of South America. The link is on the right - and yes, the wave heights are in METRES not feet!



Tony Mowbray's website is worth a look, he's sailed around the World single-handed and now spends his winters doing the promotional speach circuit and his Austral summers running trips around Cape Horn, down to the Antarctic Peninsula and to Islas Malvinas, the Falkland Islands. Follow the link at right to his website -

Expeditions are conducted in his 60 foot schooner "COMMITMENT" here shown at anchor somewhere on the Antarctic Peninsula:

This is a bit of a personal challenge for me in more ways than one. Having wrestled with CFS for the past 8 years it has been the dream of once again being in the outdoors and being adventurous that has kept me going through the tough times. Time to give it a go and see how the dice roll out. The beauty of Tony's trips is that you can be as involved in running the boat as you like, so it suites my situation prefectly. He's quite happy to let you helm the boat or help out with navigation, whatever takes your interest. I can't wait to get some time up on the helm under the tutelage of a master mariner who's really been there and done it.