Sailors' mission improbable

http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/27/1111862257068.html

 

By Alan Kennedy
March 28, 2005

Long way from home ... Alex Whitworth takes Berrimilla around Cape Horn.

Long way from home ... Alex Whitworth takes Berrimilla around Cape Horn.
Photo: Alex Whitworth

Sometime over the next few days, in the South Atlantic, one of the more unlikely rendezvous will take place between the International Space Station and a small yacht sailed by a couple of Sydney men.

Alex Whitworth, owner and skipper of the 10-metre yacht Berrimilla, and Peter Crozier have arranged to shine a super-strength spotlight towards the heavens as the spacecraft passes overhead.

Whitworth said he was certain the men aboard the spacecraft would be able to see it.

As a piece of science it is not worth much, but Whitworth feels it is all about people, isolated and with little hope of rescue if something goes wrong, reaching out to each other and sharing a common bond.

Whitworth and Crozier left Sydney on the 30-year-old yacht on December 26 last year, raced to Hobart, and then, after offloading the rest of the crew, set off to sail around the world.

Two weeks ago they rounded that Everest of sailing, Cape Horn, and made for the Falkland Islands, where they spent time refurbishing the boat, fixing their generator and restocking.

The voyage has had its uplifting moments and, said Whitworth, some terrifying ones.

Whitworth and Crozier sailed Berrimilla to a class win in the infamous 1998 Sydney-Hobart race but said that last year's race was the worst weather they had ever seen. But, said Whitworth, not any more.

Coming into Cape Horn they had 75-knot winds and huge seas for several days. Crozier and Whitworth closed up the boat and sat below for nearly three days, riding out the storm, listening to the wind howling and the huge seas breaking all around them.

And it was while sitting thousands of kilometres from land that Whitworth thought about the International Space Station. He estimated they were so far from anywhere that when it went overhead they were probably the closest human beings around.

He recorded it in his log, which is emailed regularly to friends in Sydney. They saw the reference and contacted NASA, who set up a call between Whitworth and Crozier and the International Space Station commander, Dr Leroy Chiao, and a Russian cosmonaut, Salizhan Sharipov.

After the rendezvous, Berrimilla will continue northwards, hoping to arrive in England in August. Whitworth and Crozier plan to compete in the gruelling Fastnet race, then set off again for Sydney in time for this year's Hobart race.

In between, they are planning to catch up with Dr Chiao who returns to Earth in April.