Local Sailor Completes Two Year Circumnavigation of the World Landon Hollander - Inside La Cruz | |
go to original April 26, 2016 |
Local amateur sailing enthusiast and retired Mexican Airlines pilot Alejandro Basail triumphantly returned to the Marina Riviera Nayarit Saturday April 23rd to complete his two year circumnavigation of the world aboard his 29 foot catamaran. On hand to welcome Basail and his crew (his daughter Alfa, her husband Nicolas and their two children Rio and Zen) were family and friends as well as many local residents and cruisers and, oh yes, a Mariachi band. Following the enthusiastic reception, everyone moved over to La Peska Restaurant atop the Marina offices, where a press conference was held and the returning voyagers feasted.
The following is a translation of his description of his adventures:
"Our trip began May 6 in 2014 after a year of preparations, adaptations and much learning, because none of us knew anything about boats, navigation nor sailing. The catamaran that allowed us to make this adventure was a little small for what we did, above all because the crew was composed of three adults, two children (3 to 6 years - the smaller learned to walk on the boat!) and one dog, so the spaces felt smaller and coexistence became more challenging.
The route we followed the first year we did almost non-stop since we left very late, almost at the start of the hurricane season, in fact the formation of Amanda, the first of the year we had at sea a few days out of Puerto Vallarta, but although we spent stressful moments there were no serious consequences.
The first passage which was the longest, 34 days, was Vallarta to French Polynesia (known as The Puddle Jump) where we spent 3 months. From there we left New Guinea with only two intermediate stops in Pago Pago for provisions and another in Vanuatu to repair a sail that broke. We then crossed the Torres Strait and stopped in East Timor to deal with an engine that had developed problems during the first passage. We also stopped for the same reason in Bali, Singapore and Langkawi but it was not until Thailand that we managed to solve the problem...
Read the rest and see all the photos at Inside La Cruz.
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