Some boats just know where they are going, whether there is a crew aboard or not. Take the story of “The Nord” (brought to you via a tip from TWC reader Kevin Moore), a 30-foot lifeboat rigged with two masts for ocean passagemaking. Skipper Andrew Urbanczyk wanted to sail her from San Francisco to Hawaii last Fall. So he rounded up two crew, who swore they were salty fellows, and took off on September 1. The ocean has a funny way of showing up hubris, though, and even though Urbanczyk is a record-setting solo sailor and author of more than 40 books on the sea, his over-optimistic crew discovered that life on the rolling Pacific in a small boat is, well, difficult. After just a few weeks of puking and learning to live soaking wet, they stubbornly declared they believed their lives were in danger and convinced Urbanczyk to call the Coast Guard for help. The CG dutifully routed a commercial vessel to The Nord, and Urbanczyk, who is 70, decided that he couldn’t handle the Nord alone and would have to abandon ship too. That was mid-September, and Urbanczyk figured he would never see his little lifeboat again. So imagine his surprise when The Nord recently drifted ashore at Waihee beach on Maui. “There is a lot of ocean out there,” Urbanczyk said. “If you look at a map, the boat hit the center.” You can read the full story here. Guess they should have just sat in The Nord and done, umm, nothing. Losers…
It Gives A Whole New Meaning To Self-Steering: “Hmm. All I need to do is get some new sails, install a DVD player, and this thing will be ready to go around the world. Plus, apparently I can skip the GPS…”
(Photo: The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER)
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The Earthist Chronicles 