S/V Billabong Blog: July 2009

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Zac: Only a sailor could understand

Our Current Location: Our Antalya Flat (heading home soon)

We've been following Zac Sunderland since he began his quest last June to become the Youngest Solo Circumnavigator (at 17). He's been slogging his way up the West Coast of Mexico, dogging ships, potential hurricanes and fixing major damage caused by the "Baja Bash".

Click to zoom in..
Locations and Blog Link (bottom) are automatically updated from Zac's latest Blog posts.

Last week with approximately 500+ miles to go, a return date and location was announced: Fisherman's Village, Marina del Rey on Tuesday July 14th at 10:00am. Seems like plenty of time..yes?

While we were cruising we had a golden rule..

"You can pick a time OR a place, but you can't pick both".

The weather introduces too many variables into the equation, it's just not as simple as pushing the pedal to the metal. So.. I wasn't too surprised when they announced they may have to push back his arrival date a couple of days.

Wait a minute.. how far does he have to go? Based on my calculations the distance is 270 miles (point to point) and he has a little over 5 DAYS. Yes days.. 132 hours to cover 270 miles.. yikes!!

There is no fast lane at sea, especially on the Baja Bash. Look at all the jagged lines on our track up the Red Sea.. that's short tacking all day 45-50 miles back and forth to only cover 30 miles (in 9 hours). That is a hard days work.. we had TWO people and we got to rest at night, Zac doesn't!

Zac I salute you.. you have accomplished an amazing feat. I would be very interested to catch up with you, sometime way down the road.. and see how this adventure changed your life.

If you haven't checked out our Interactive TrackZac map Please do..

I'd love some feedback if you get a chance.. BlurbBits is the product I've been working on for the past year, preparing for my return to the real world (and a job).

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