Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
Atlantic alone - 1975
Atlantic alone - 1975
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-17 14:54:12
Displayed times (last time: )
www.palkiewicz.com
44 days by lifeboat, Dakar-Georgetown
In the autumn of the 1974 Jacek Palkiewicz, after having purchased and sheltered to La Spezia an old lifeboat (long 5,50 m, sail 15 mqs), without sextant, wind rudder and radio, part from Dakar (Senegal) to Georgetown (Guyana). A venture that, gives the type of boat, has succeeded only to few solitary navigators in the history of the sail. After 44 days of struggle against the fury of the ocean, the sleep, the tiredness, the cold, the damp of the night and the torrid heat of the day, Palkiewicz succeeds in touching earth in the South America.
One day, the little daughter of a friend of mine asked me a surprise question: "Is it true", she inquired, with wide open eyes, "that you crossed an ocean on your own?"
It was a hot afternoon. We were lying in the shade thrown by some palms, sipping Jamaica rum and mango juice. From time to time I allow myself a moment's weakness, and for a second I found it difficult to recall an event which had taken place so long ago, and in such different circumstances.
I stayed silent for a while, before memories from fifteen years before came rushing back and I was once more alone in the middle of the ocean.
Chapped face and hands, parched lips, a singlet stiff with brine. Around me, nothing but water, marvellous and infinite, under a glaring blue sky. Stormy nights, peace and tranquillity, the murmurs of the waves, the creak of the rigging, solitude, anxiety, long days and long, endless nights.
"Yes, I really did cross an ocean, though now the callouses on my hands and the windburn have disappeared, it seems like someone else's story".
Slowly, all the old memories came to the surface, recalling moments of terror and the pride I felt at my victory. Not the kind of victory you win in a game or while betting, but a victory over myself, for having reached the goal I had set myself despite all
...
See photographs from:
Guyana Gallery
,
Senegal Gallery
