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travel / adventure zone
| The Adventure Zone |
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Around the World Alone
The world's first solo circumnavigator, Canadian-born Joshua Slocum has been the patron
saint of adventurers and sailors since the completion of his historic trip in 1898. In the
intervening years, however, fewer than 100 people have duplicated Slocum's feat and only one has been
Canadian.
Canada's ship may have come in during 2002 as sailors John Dennis and Derek Hatfield hit the high seas
in Around Alone. Called the most gruelling solo adventure on Earth, the race places Dennis and Hatfield
in a field of 13 elite skippers who face fierce physical and mental hardship as they seek to sail
single-handedly around the world.
The racers set out from New York City's Statue of Liberty on September 15 and headed for Torbay,
England, the first stop on the 28,000-nautical-mile adventure. Divided into five legs ranging from
3,000 to nearly 9,000 nautical miles, Around Alone proceeds from Torbay and on to Cape Town,
South Africa, Tauranga, New Zealand, and Salvador, Brazil, before swinging north to Newport,
Rhode Island. Only 60 percent of the competitors who start the race see it through to the conclusion.
A lifelong sailor, John Dennis is a Halifax, Nova Scotia, native who has dreamed since childhood of
sailing around the world. Aboard his 50-foot boat Ascensia, Dennis has raised the stakes by attempting
to become the first skipper with diabetes to compete in the event, which is named in honour of Joshua
Slocum's autobiography Sailing Alone Around the World. Rather than the diagnosis spelling the end
of his dream, the 57-year-old Dennis, with sponsorship from Bayer, will spend eight months on the
open seas juggling the dual challenges of monitoring his health while battling bad weather and high
waves. Dennis is sailing on behalf of the Canadian Diabetes Association and hopes to raise funds
for research, education, service and advocacy.
Derek Hatfield of Toronto, the second Canadian skipper, is sailing aboard Spirit of Canada,
which he built over three years from 1998 to 2000. A veteran of many of the world's single-handed
races and one of Canada's most seasoned offshore sailors, Hatfield was some 250 nautical miles from
Cape Town on December 1 followed by Dennis at 800 nautical miles.
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