A while ago I blogged about a young Australia guy, Nick living in Holland. With little sailing experience Nick decided that the only way he wanted to get home was to sail back to Melbourne, single-handed. He has been blogging about this for nearly two years. After several months learning to sail offshore, raising money, Nick set off in his 26′ Constellation, in September 2007. Currently Nick is in the Caribbean.
This week I got this email from blogger David Traver Adolphus:
In July of 2006, Australian Nick Jaffe was stuck in Europe, and decided to he liked sailboats. An artist and software developer, he’d always liked messing about in boats, but had exactly zero experience in bluewater sailing. Over the next year, he developed the notion that the best way for him to get home to Australia would be to sail there, and he set about making that dream a reality.
In September of 2007, he left Holland aboard his 26-foot Contessa, Constellation. On April 29th of this year, he completed a singlehanded crossing from the Canaries to Barbados.
I have no stake in the voyage of the Constellation beyond being captured by Nick’s spirit. I’ve been following his progress on his www.bigoceans.com website for over a year, and in the progress struck up a conversation with him. Nick’s plans for the rest of his voyage are equally audacious, but between now and Australia he’ll be stopping in New York. I’m only an armchair sailor, but I understand the scale of what he’s accomplished so far, and of what he’s proposing from here.
If you have any interest in helping out, or know someone who might be, please let me know. His needs aren’t great—I’d like to find him slips between New York and Maine, and he’ll be looking for things like cordage, spreaders, paint… you real sailors will have a better idea than me, frankly.
I’d also like to welcome him to the USA in style, so I’m also hoping to arrange a party for him; I know he has many friends and supporters on the East Coast who’d love to be a part of it. Maybe someone can donate a banquet room at one of the NYC-area yacht clubs? Please contact me and I’ll start putting things together. I also think this is an outstanding sponsorship opportunity, but that’s between you and Nick.
Nick’s story is an inspiring and heartwarming one, and two years later it’s not even half over. Join his voyage—you won’t be sorry.
So all you sailing bloggers out there on the East Coast, how can we entice Nick to the Big Apple? How can we help him? I am up for helping David organize things in NY. Clearly he is going to need help at other points on the Eastern seaboard.
Good on you, mate.
But I’m confused. How does sailing to New York and Maine help a guy in Barbados get to Australia. He’s not going to attempt the North-West Passage is he?
I was surprised myself. I think there are a couple of things going on here. He has a lot of friends in the area who can hep him raise $. He is also considering taking his boat overland!
Overland? That will make for some different posts on his blog. Will he change the title from Big Oceans to Big Roads?
Thanks Adam for the post!
To clear some confusion up: I am going up to New York, because I have friends and family there. Also, I can’t stick around the Caribbean during the hurricane season – To add to the fuel, there are work and sponsorship opportunities for me in the States too.
I would like to take the boat overland (don’t think I’ll change the title of the blog for that though 😉 to San Francisco, but it is a costly exercise, and unless a particularly interesting opportunity comes along to make that happen, I am now considering returning via the ICW, and visiting Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica etc before heading for Panama. It’s all up in the air right now, but I’m just heading north to St Lucia and then Antigua as of Monday, so we’ll see what happens.
This is going to sound funny, but I actually did a lot of research on the NW passage. It may be one of the more ridiculous ideas of toyed with, but it would certainly be record-setting. Anyway, I’ll stop there with my NW passage ideas before I start getting labeled as a complete nutter (if I haven’t been already!)
Cheers again for everyone looking out for me!
nick
That makes sense. Thanks for the answer. There must surely be records still to be set in the Northwest Passage and with climate change making it more accessible it seems that it will attract the attention of many amateur adventurers in the next few years. Am I right in thinking that the first east-to-west transit under sail only is still up for grabs?
Well, I must admit I get excited every time I think about the NW passage… I think there are a few records I could set – These are unverifiable at the moment, but based on what I know:
1) First Australian
2) Youngest singlehander (one of the few singlehanders all all in fact)
3) Smallest monohull
Did Sebastien Roubinet not do the East-West contingent last year under pure sail?
I think Roubinet went from Alaska to Greenland, west to east. I’m not aware that anyone has yet done the NW passage from east to west under sail alone. But I could be wrong.
Yes, my bad, you’re right. I double checked the article I have on the voyage (unfortunately it’s in French!) and you’re correct! E-W under sail alone would then be up for grabs…