Atlantic Crossing
In 1983, Rosie Swale sailed solo across the Atlantic in a small 17-foot (5.2 m) foot cutter, which she had found in a cowshed in Wales and named Fiesta Girl. Aiming to be the fourth woman to sail alone to America in a small boat from England (the first being Ann Davison in 1952-1953, followed by Nicolette Milnes-Walker in 1972 and Clare Francis in 1973), she also wanted to raise funds for a CAT Scanner for the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Divorced from Colin Swale, Rosie also found her second husband, sailor and photographer Clive Pope, during the preparations for the trip, when he rigged the boat for her.
Departing from Pembroke in Wales on 13 July 1983, she sailed to the Azores and Caribbean Islands. Simply equipped, Rosie navigated by the stars and was nearly run down by an oil tanker. When she was 100 miles (160 km) north of Puerto Rico, she was becalmed for so long she was without food and water for five days and nearly drowned when she was swept overboard in storms. She arrived at Staten Island, New York, after completing her record-breaking 4,800 miles (7,720 km) in 70 days - navigating by the stars with the aid of her Timex watch.
Read more about this topic: Rosie Swale-Pope
Famous quotes containing the words atlantic and/or crossing:
“‘Society’ in America means all the honest, kindly-mannered, pleasant- voiced women, and all the good, brave, unassuming men, between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Each of these has a free pass in every city and village, ‘good for this generation only,’ and it depends on each to make use of this pass or not as it may happen to suit his or her fancy.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Bodhidharma sailing the Yangtze on a reed
Lenin in a sealed train through Germany
Hsuan Tsang, crossing the Pamirs
Joseph, Crazy Horse, living the last free
starving high-country winter of their tribes.
Surrender into freedom revolt into slavery—”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)