Webb Chiles Makes It to the US
In other, (and decidedly happier) Moore 24 news . . .
When we last reported on Webb Chiles — the 75-year-old solo circumnavigator going for his sixth lap around the planet, this time in a Moore 24 — he’d left Durban, South Africa, made a pit stop on St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic and crossed the equator (for the 15th time in his life) on April 1.
Chiles left San Diego aboard Gannet in 2014 and eventually made his way to New Zealand. In 2016, Chiles continued westward to Darwin, Australia. This year, he sailed from Africa toward the US, and recently made one of his final legs of the year from St. Lucia to Marathon, Florida, before he’ll wait until 2018 to complete his trip.
Chiles said sailing from the Caribbean to Florida was among "the most beautiful of passages. Until it wasn’t."
"Twelve hundred miles were full of fine sailing, and the last one hundred full of frustration and despair," Chiles told Latitude. Upon leaving St. Lucia, his electric outboard motor wouldn’t start. "I have emailed [the manufacturer] asking for explanation. I cursed various nonexistent gods, walked down the dock, came across a St. Lucian with a Cigarette boat who towed me from my slip and thirty yards before I could sail and refused payment.
"After that for almost two weeks it was so wonderful that I began to consider if good can be appreciated without evil, if all sailing were that good would we enjoy it as much as we do having known gales and hurricanes? I think not."
Chiles said he was aiming for Key West, "but the wind was weak and then died completely. We were helplessly carried northeast at 2.5 knots in the middle of shipping lanes. Only skill and chance enabled us to get an anchor down Monday night off Boot Key, which encompasses Marathon, Florida."
Chiles said it took him seven and a half hours to cover the last sixteen miles, when his depth sounder finally read 30 feet of water, enough to drop the hook and keep him from drifting toward the Bahamas.
Gannet will remain in Florida for the remainder of 2017, "unless a hurricane blows her into another state." Chiles hopes to sail for the Panama Canal early next year, then make his way back to San Diego.
You can read about the adventures of the Chiles on his blog, and follow his meandering path here.