It all began with Joshua Slocum who from 1895 to 1898 sailed single-handedly around the world. He wrote about this, the first solo-circumnavigation of the world, in his international bestseller, "Sailing Alone Around the World".
Then in 1967 Francis Chichester became the first person and fastest circumnavigator to have sailed single-handedly around the world by the old clipper route in nine months, with just one stop-over in Sydney.
Leaving the world's biggest (and best) island in late 1969 for a smaller one up north, I began to read about Slocum and Chichester although I never owned a "Spray" or a "Gipsy Moth IV"; instead, I had a succession of sailing dinghies, from a Corsair to a Heron to a Fireball to a Laser (not counting my part-ownership in a Hartley Trailer-Sailer in which we won the Savo Race in Honiara in the British Solomons at Easter 1973).
The nearest I ever got to serious bluewater sailing was when my friend Brian Herde and I flew across the Owen Stanley Range to inspect a boat at Popondetta, the "Spirit of Barbary", an ex-Nova Scotian lifeboat. The price was right but not the time as I went on to a new job in Burma.
I'm keeping up my interest in sailing despite my now much-reduced number of books on the subject - click here - so when I heard of the British biographical drama film "The Mercy", I quickly went to see it.
Like the previous "Crowhurst" and the documentary "Deep Water", it's based on the true story of Donald Crowhurst's disastrous attempt to complete the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and the way he tried to cover up his failure. A tragic end to a lot of English derring-do.
P.S. I've just returned from Batemans Bay where I dropped off Padma at the bus-stop. She's on her way to Melbourne to meet up with her sister before they both fly on GARUDA to Surabaya. Padma will visit her father for the next four weeks during which time I shall solo-circumnavigate my inner world and live on shipboard rations of baked beans on toast, cheese-and-onion sandwiches, Chinese take-aways, and savoury mince. Who said Friday the 13th was an unlucky day?
