Tony Mowbray Circumnavigation
Tony Mowbray sees it as his personal mission to sail around the world and says he has an ego the size of a football field. His biggest fear is the fear of not getting to the starting line. He is scared of failing. He plans to sail around the world to raise funds for Newcastle John Hunter Childrens Hospital. In 1996 he sailed around Lake Macquarie to raise funds for Canteen. He survived the hobart race in 1998 which was the worst race in the history of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Tony almost lost his life and the lives of his crew. He is a fairly aggressive person and does not like to lose. On the 15th October 2000, Tony sailed out of Newcastle Harbour determined to finish the job. He is upset at leaving his family and the time for bullshit is over and it is time to be tested.
On Day five he is half way to New Zealand and the days are starting to drift into one. He has to sail more than twenty thousand miles circumnavigating the globe. At day twelve he is past New Zealand and thinks of the task as being like climbing Mount Everest. Tony has been in fog for the last two days and the temperature is about six degrees. Cape Horn is about four thousand miles away and he gets becalmed. At day fifteen he is at 50 degrees south. The breeze picks up and Tony Mowbray says that it has "guts". It is starting to rain and there are thirty foot waves. He has not got much sail up and he is coasting down the waves.
On day thirty he is 2,500 miles from Cape Horn. He wonders why he is doing this and says that people would not understand unless they were out there on the ocean. He nearly loses the mast - "we have a problem". At day 35 the wind strength is twenty knots. He plans to go to Stanley in the Falklands and make the repairs. It is taking too much out of him emotionally and financially. It is a mind game more than anything else. There is a long way to go and he is not giving up yet. He tries to repair the mast supports and starts drilling through the hull to repair the mast support. He makes the repairs after six days and is ecstatic.
Day 46 he is about five hundred miles from Cape Horn and is keen to get there. The wind is 35 knots from the port side and he is doing about 7.5 knots. He is nursing the mast. On Day 50 he sights Cape Horn and is relieved and very happy to have reached this goal. Day 72 is on Christmas Eve and Tony rings the kids and he gets very emotional thinking of his family. Day 78 he is in the South Atlantic Ocean and celebrates New Years Eve with a drink. He is near St Helena Island, then passes Ascencion Island. At day 93 he is half way on his circumnavigation around the earth. On day 110 he is on the way to Tristan de Cunha and Tony Mowbray says that it is a game of inches. On day 153 he was knocked down and bobbed back up again by an amazing wave. He remembers the 98 Hobart race. There is less than a thousand miles to go on day 171.
He is waiting and hoping to get to Tasmania and on day 173 he gets there. He is very excited and proud to be an Australian and thinks that he is going to do it. On the 6th April he is off Tasman Island. He feels serenity and self-satisfaction and at peace for taking it on and coming out the other end ok. On day 180 he is off Newcastle Harbour. Thousands of people gather on the Newcastle forshore to greet him when he sails into the harbour.
Tony Mowbray Circumnavigation
Tony Mowbray Circumnavigation 2
Tony Mowbray Information
.
|
