Posted by 
Webb Chiles is one the greatest singlehanders in the modern era. Not necessarily for speed records or things like that, (although he has indeed set records.) Rather in choosing odd and/or difficult boats to circumnavigate the world.
He has always been a personal hero to me, and I am happy that Webb checked in with this piece from 2009/now, with now being in parenthesis. – ed.
A gibbous moon directly above the masthead illuminates THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s white deck and white asymmetrical spinnaker as she slides across a dark sea. We are three weeks and a day out of Panama. Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands is a week and a day or two ahead.
I take a cup of tea and sit on deck. I cherish these nights. I’m 67 years old. (Now 83.) This is my fifth circumnavigation. If there is ever a sixth, it will be in the Southern Ocean and via Cape Horn again. (I was wrong. Perhaps if there is a seventh.) One way or the other there won’t be that many more nights gliding before the trades.(Wrong again. There were many more tradewind nights sailing GANNET.)
(It is very worth noting that Gannet is a Moore 24. – ed.)
Once when being interviewed I was asked what in one word sailing means to me, and my instant reply was, “Freedom.”
I’ve wondered about that since then. I am after all free enough on land. I stopped working for other people and owing money in 1974. But I never feel as free on land as I do at sea…
Follow Us!