Annals Of Achievement–Blind Circumnavigation?: Sail around the world blind? Yup. Sounds nuts, but Scott Duncan and Pamela Habek are already on their way. Both are legally blind, and they departed San Francisco this week aboard their Valiant 32 sailboat. They are headed south, and then west across the Pacific. They’ll hit the Roaring 40s while sailing south of Australia and Africa, and finally turn north to head for the Panama Canal and back to California. If they make it, they will be the first (they think) blind sailors to circumnavigate the globe. The obvious question: How the hell are they going to do it if they can’t see? Well, it turns out that they can see just a little (they are legally blind not totally blind). Not very much, and certainly not well enough to pick out all the shipping, and other dangers they might be sailing toward. But with the help of powerful magnifying glasses they can read a GPS and the radar. And these days that’s pretty much all you need to navigate. You can read more about the voyage and how it all came about here. Duncan wants to inspire visually impaired kids, but his underlying philosophy can be seen right on his T-shirt. It reads “Fear Sucks”…



Blind and Bold: “Yo, Scott! Scott! The marina entrance is the OTHER way…”