As much as I enjoy good company I am very content with my own. By nature I am self-reliant and capable of fixing, or working around, problems. In the tradition of many early solo sailors, I’m building my own boat, a Suhaili Replica.

I’ve sailed since a young age and had the urge for the Southern Ocean almost as long after reading The Lonely Sea and the Sky by Sir Francis Chichester. My sailing experience is varied and includes South Atlantic and Tasman, cruising the Eastern Coast of Australia and probably the most relevant is my adventure sailing, often single handed, around the Cape of Good Hope coast in a 23’ plywood van de Stadt keelboat without GPS.

Apart from the self-discipline of sailing the boat, and staying on top of repairs, when tired, hungry and cold, the GGR will expose me intimately to the physical world that we live in including the raw power of my friends the ocean and the wind, I look forward to this.

From a sailing perspective a Suhaili Replica in the GGR may help me to understand the design attributes of a traditional heavy displacement double ender in high winds and big confused sea state when sailed hard. Boats are an endless fascination for me.