Andrew Fagan on Swirly World’s Last Great Adventure

Photo: nationalwidebooks.co.nz

In early 2022, renowned solo sailor, writer and singer Andrew Fagan set sail on his tiny 5.1-metre sloop-rigged plywood yacht. Vortex world in eternity.

Vortex World faithfully accompanied Fagan on numerous voyages on the high seas; this time the mission was to become the smallest boat to circumnavigate the world alone through the Great Capes.

Things didn’t go quite according to plan.

Fagan sailed alone Vortex world in eternity around Aotearoa to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, to the Kermadecs, and across the Tasman and back.

The journey will take the small boat into the vast seas of the Southern Ocean, he told RNZ. Sunday morning.

“Auckland is at 36 degrees south latitude and Cape Horn is at 56 degrees south latitude. So this is a very long way down.

“To catch the major westerly and southwesterly wind systems that will be behind you, it’s best to get down there. So I left Auckland and got down to 40-45 degrees south.

“I tried to stay on the northern edge of the Southern Ocean, where the wind was blowing as needed. But I wasn’t in a murderous state.”

The Great Capes are Cape Horn in southern South America; Cape of Good Hope, South Africa; and Cape Leeuwin, southwest Australia.

“Then you also have the bottom of Tasmania, and technically the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island is another cape.”

Life on board a yacht is difficult, he said.

“You can’t stand up in Vortex World. When you sit in the chair, the deck is right where your head is. You don’t have to bend over when you’re sitting, but you can’t stand up.

“When you’re trying to put on wet weather clothing that might be damp or still wet from your last walk, you have to be something of an acrobat to do it.”

There was enough freeze-dried food on board for 14 months. And to get fresh water, Fagan had to work hard: to get three liters, the water generator had to be pumped for 40 minutes.

“I did about 30 strokes and then changed weapons.”

It works on the basis of reverse osmosis, turning sea water into fresh water by passing it through a membrane.

“It really makes you appreciate the value of fresh water.”

Photo: nationalwidebooks.co.nz

According to him, the pitching on board a small boat in a big sea is relentless.

“I think a lot of people would just be shocked by the traffic, there’s so much traffic going on and the boat is always rolling and it’s quite tiring. But you get used to it.”

He noticed Vortex World during the journey he collected water – a harbinger of future events.

“The adhesive line of the skeg cracked due to these massive breakers that hit the boat.

“So the water started to rise, it was seeping into the boat through the three quartz bronze bolts that secured the skeg to the hull.”

According to him, the skeg provides directional stability.

One morning, 2,300 nautical miles from New Zealand, he discovered that the skeg had disappeared.

“Without a skeg, the weather vane would not work. The vane steered itself mostly 70 percent of the time, steering the boat while I was inside reading my Kindle or whatever. Without this help I would have been stuffed.”

He decided to go somewhere and make repairs.

“At this stage the boat was leaking and I was drawing about 15-20 liters of water a day from the boat.”

Pitcairn Island was the nearest safe haven, he said, 1,000 nautical miles to the north.

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On the way to Pitcairn he suffered even more misfortunes.

“The rudder broke off. He must have been overexerted while the skeg was swinging around for days and weeks, I think he also suffered physical damage.

“And the pressure of simple manual control. I began to manually steer north. And I did about 45 miles and 11 hours, which was pretty good. And I thought that it would be so. It takes maybe 25 days to get to Pitcairn, 1000 miles, but I stop at night or stop when I need to rest.

“I was going to do it, but then it just broke. And then I really got stuck.”

There was no other choice but to declare trouble.

“I turned on my emergency beacon and a 300-metre container ship responded and they came down to pick me up.”

But when the huge ship arrived, things were far from simple.

“This container ship was too big to get into Auckland, it only goes to Tauranga and Napier, it was just huge.”

Getting close enough to the side was also dangerous, since in the vast sea the huge ship threatened to break. Vortex World to pieces.

Eventually they were able to find a line for transportation. Vortex World closer to the ship and the rope ladder that Fagan can climb up.

“Meanwhile, the boat was literally slammed into the side of this steel wall.”

Fagan was safe, but Vortex World left to the mercy of fate.

“He could have ended up on some remote rocky shore and crashed. But, most likely, I would say that it sank.”

Fagan at Swirly World
Photo: supplied