British sailor Pete Goss was expected to set sail across the world to Australia yesterday aboard a simple wooden boat he built himself, following a route taken by seven Cornishmen more than 150 years ago.
The ex-Royal Marine and his three crew will sail a 11.3m wooden lugger from Newlyn in Cornwall, southwestern England, to Melbourne, using nothing but the stars to guide them.
They hope to recreate the 17,700km journey undertaken by the crew of Mystery, who left Newlyn on Nov. 18, 1854, to make their fortune in Australia’s gold rush.
Stopping only once for repairs and food in Cape Town, South Africa, the seven Cornishmen made it safely to Melbourne in 116 days, arriving on March 14, 1855. Goss believes he can accomplish the trip in the same time.
“This project has been a long time in the making and now we cannot wait to set sail. We just want to slip our lines and head for the freedom of the ocean,” he said.
Weather permitting, they should have left yesterday evening, his blog said.
Goss is no stranger to maritime challenges, having taken part in the Vendee Globe single-handed around-the-world race in the winter of 1996, changing course mid-way to rescue stricken rival Raphael Dinelli in the Southern Ocean.
In December 2000, it was he and his crew who needed rescuing when their catamaran got caught in an Atlantic storm during sea trials for another race.
This journey will be considerably less high-tech.
Barring a few safety modifications, the boat crewed by Goss, his 14-year-old son Eliot, his brother Andy and brother-in-law Mark Maidment, has no modern electrical or navigational equipment.
The boat is fitted by a satellite tracking device to allow the team at home to keep an eye on them, but those on board will have to rely on the stars.
“A lot of brushing up will be needed for this but I have always wanted to complete a long ocean passage using only the heavenly bodies,” Goss said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of