Published:
08/08/2011 08:34pm
How to Circumnavigate on $20 or less
In today’s economy a circumnavigation can be a costly affair, but it doesn’t need to be. In the mid-sixties four of us left Los Angeles to begin a surfing safari to the Hawaiian Islands. That initial hop morphed into an around-the-world journey. During the next two years we visited over fifteen countries and had the adventure of a lifetime.
The quartet, having just completed high school, departed California’s west coast for a three month adventure to the distant Islands. Poor surfing conditions caused Chuck and myself to continue on, in a southwest direction, toward American Samoa. We each carried a round trip ticket, our surfboard and $20 cash between us.
In Samoa, we became hired crew ($50/month) on an old copra boat that traveled to Upolo in Western Samoa. Having found no cargo, we then returned to Pango. The next leg of our journey was to head west to Suva, Fiji, almost sinking on the way. Abandoning the leaking, listing, about to be foundering vessel in Suva, we met up with a 56’ ketch that was crewless, but not clueless. Being at the right place at the right time, we were invited to sail on an expedition to collect the elusive butterflies of Papua, NG.
Sailing the next fourteen months on Paisano, a beautiful, wooden ketch built in 1924, we sailed the world while exploring its wonders. Always exchanging work for travel, food, and accommodation made this circumnavigation inexpensive but not without adventure.
With an eye out for the world‘s great surf breaks, we visited exotic locales, some we had never heard of. We surfed in: Samoa (both American and Western), Fiji, New Caledonia, Australia and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). While we didn’t get to go everywhere we would have liked, we did go places we had never dreamt of. Additionally, we learned a great deal about seamanship and how to sail a boat. At the start, both of us were novices, never having sailed before.
While our circumnavigation didn’t cost us much in out of pocket expenses, we couldn’t complain of boredom. Motoring near Upolo we battled boat fires, we almost sank on the way to Fiji. In Australia, we were blasted by a 95 mile-an-hour cyclone. We slept, under the stars of the Southern Cross, on uninhabited islands in the south seas, went on a butterfly safari in New Guinea, and experienced a 125 mile-an-hour hurricane in the North Atlantic.
We traveled together for a total of eighteen months without ever spending much of our original stash. Never intending extended travel, but always encountering opportunity, invitations and open doors, we traveled together to Ceylon, then split up as I headed off on my own journey of discovery. In May of 1966, I arrived in New York with $3 in my pocket.
To read the entire story of my circumnavigation check my website @ www.fromboys2men.com. From Boys 2 men is also available as an ebook.
