Heroes and Legends

Culturally, we like heroes. The hero’s journey is a common storyline in movies and literature. An explanation of the hero’s journey can be found here or an explanation as it applies to The Hobbit, here. Heroes are not only found in movies or literature. Sports have their heroes–their legends–too.

Hockey has Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr. Mountaineering has Reinhold Messner or Chris Bonington. Sailing too has its heroes. Eric and Susan Hiscock, Bernard Moitessier and Joshua Slocum come to mind. All have done amazing things in the sailing world. When we were in Suwarrow and again in Tonga, we met a sailing legend.

The anchorage in Suwarrow is difficult. The water is deep and has many coral heads–bommies–scattered around the anchorage area. It is hard to drop one’s anchor without snagging a bommie. While we were there, we watched a yellow hulled sloop–Iron Bark III–sail into the anchorage and drop anchor in deep water behind and well clear of the other boats. There was only one person on board–a single hander.

For those that are not familiar with the term, a single hander is a person that sails alone. It takes a special skill set to be a single hander. I don’t have that skill set and I don’t plan to single hand our boat. Much of the time when sailing on Cambria, only one person is needed but when things go wrong, when things break or when conditions are rough, we need two people. I have tremendous respect for people that sail alone.

After going ashore and clearing into the country, the sailor on Iron Bark III returned to his boat and proceeded to raise anchor so he could move further into the anchorage. His anchor wouldn’t come up. We watched him make several attempts to raise the anchor without success. He tried motoring one way then another to break his anchor free but wasn’t successful. We watched his attempts for a little while before Sharlene suggested I’d better go give him a hand. We have dive gear on board and I have used it before to help another boat free their anchor when it was caught on a bommie. I jumped in the dinghy and headed over to the yellow boat.

The gentlemen on board introduced himself as Trevor. It turns out that the anchor was in water too deep for me to reach with my dive gear but Trevor didn’t really need my help. He knew exactly what to do and was accustomed to doing things on his own. He soon had the anchor up and we moved further into the anchoring area and Iron Bark III was soon anchored securely. I basically stood to the side and watched Trevor do his thing through this process. Thankfully, he was a gracious host and did not make we feel like the loose wheel that I was. Regardless of my lack of involvement, Trevor offered me a beer for my help. Of course, I accepted.

Going below I noted how well the interior was laid out–uncluttered and functional. Clearly, Trevor had put a lot of thought, time and effort into making Iron Bark III function well and work for a single hander. I soon realized that Trevor was no ordinary milk-run sailor. As we chatted, his vast experience soon became apparent. He in no way was bragging but it was clear, he had years of experience. I later learned that he first left his home country of Australia in 1976 and he has been voyaging ever since. He has stopped to work when needed but most of the last 45 years, he has been cruising.

There is a photo down below on Iron Bark III of his previous boat–Iron Bark II. It shows the boat frozen in ice and covered in snow. I asked Trevor how long he spent frozen in the ice. Eight months was his reply! The photo was taken in Antarctica where he spent a winter frozen in the ice, alone. Not only that, but before spending the winter frozen in the ice he had sailed from New Zealand to Antarctica, a distance of over 4000 nautical miles. The trip took him 48 days.

If you have read one of my Tongan posts, you will know that I had two teeth pulled in while there. Trevor, too, has had to have teeth pulled while on his travels. The difference being was that he was far from any dental clinics, so he pulled them himself. I have no idea how he did it and if I ever need another tooth pulled, I will not be doing it myself.

I have been reading Trevor’s blog. He doesn’t post a lot. Some of what he has posted are articles he has written over the years for various yachting publications. I recommend his blog if you are interested in reading about sailing and adventuring in the high latitudes.

The man is a sailing legend.