The most convenient and safest departure point for my circumnavigation is Hobart in Tasmania, Australia.
There are however two big problems, logistics and bureaucracy. They give me pimples.
These problems we do not have in Europe. Last year I took my boat on a trailer to Kinsale Ireland. The only hassle was the Calais Dower crossing. I blame it on the English. They always like to complicate things. To get on the ferries between Sweden and Denmark and between Denmark and Germany all one had to do was to pay in drive through gate, elapsed time about one minute. Not that it was very difficult to park the car in Calais and find the office and there do the paying but why?
Leaving Ireland for Madeira was no problem at all I just left. In fact the authorities did not even like to talk to me. I had tried that before first when I sailed a fifteen footer to Newfoundland and later when I sailed a Vega to Florida.
My project goes very well and the more I work on it the better it seams. The Kinsale starting point will add a lot of miles to the journey. The total will something like 30000 nautical miles with an estimated average speed of 2 knots it will take 600 days. Can a ten-footer have that kind of autonomy? At first it seams impossible. Will my 400 kilo food last that long? A little calculation shows that in fact there is an ample margin. For example muesli is about 370 kcal per 100 gram. 370×4000 (400 kilo muesli ) gives 1.48 million kcal. That will give me 2467 kcal per day.
A calorie calculator for a man 67 kilo 1.67 meter long age 75 years says he shall not eat more than 1855 kcal per day if not to gain weight. 1.48 million divided by 1855 gives 797.8 days or 800 days a margin of 200 days. As far as food goes, therefore no problem, besides I use fewer calories than most. I easily gain weight.
Sailing a small boat in the southern ocean is not the same as staying in an old person home. Still compared to my active life ashore just sitting in the boat for 600 days is not the best. But just sitting is not what I intend to do.
I hope to have a pedal- and crank operated generator to move my arm and legs a bonus is the electricity. Between the side-by-side masts I insert a bar for chin-ups etc. Also there will be a lot of water around the boat to be swum. Up here in Scandinavia there is a special breed of people, the winter bathers. They cut a hole in the ice and skin dip. When living on the island of Tjörn I was on my way to become one. Twice a week I went for swims. I had hoped to do it the whole winter through but in December I mowed to Västervik. Here it is not as convenient.
I can do with a bit more books. Luckily there is a lot happening on the e-book-reader market. E-paper uses no electricity when reading only when you turn the page. Unfortunately the different brands are not all compatible with each other. I like to read books in several languages. Some of the e-book-readers do have dictionaries, however I am not shore you have to be on line to have access to the base. What brand do I chose? Probably several different ones, time will tell.
A problem is that I will be away from my dentist for a long time. I remember reading about a German dentist one of the early settlers on the Galapagos Islands. It was in the thirties bad times in Germany for some. He had decided on a safer place. Most craftsmen suboptimise. He had seen enough of dental problems to realize that the last thing he wanted were to live on an isolated island with toothache. He pulled all his teeth and made himself false teeth of platinum. Unfortunately he became allergic to platinum. I will consult my dentist.
Regards Yrvind.