A California man just set a new world record by completing a solo ‘figure-8’ sail around the world. On October 19th, 57-year-old Randall Reeves sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and docked at Sausalito, marking an end to his year at sea circumnavigating the globe.
“There’s no coastguard down there. No one’s going to come pick you up if you have problems. You have to figure it out on your own. To put yourself into a part of the world that is absolutely and utterly wild, to be in a place where humans simply aren’t, to deal with what nature dishes you, it’s a huge privilege,” Reeves told CNN Travel.
He departed on 30th Septmeber 2018, on Moli his 45-feet vessel, from San Francisco down the Pacific past South America, made a hard left through the Southern Ocean above Antarctica and went once around the globe, before turning north. He then sailed through the Atlantic and into the Arctic Ocean and circled the globe once more before heading back south toward home in California.
He rounded the American and the Antarctic continents and approached both the North and South Poles in the span of one calendar year, but over just the summer season, as this kind of journey couldn’t be made to either pole in the winter, according to CNN.
Reeves’ previous attempt in 2017 ended with an overturned boat post-storm in Tasmania and only one other sailor has attempted a similar figure-8 route but didn’t complete it. Reeves completed the 40,000-mile journey without power winches or power sails, refrigeration, or on-board water purification; he carried all his food onboard, including 365 Clif Bars, 35 pounds of coffee, 36 pounds of powdered milk, and 84 cans of stewed tomatoes, and freshwater for the year.
Reeves survived 200 days without human voice contact and 230-plus days of sleeping in only 90-minute stretches.
What’s next? Reeves plans on completing the figure-8 route again, but more slowly, “say, in five years as opposed to one,” he said.
