Nineteenth Century Technology
The Fairweather was two-masted, gaff-rigged schooner, designed by Murray Peterson, and build in George Town, Grand Cayman in 1951. The design and the construction represent 19th century technology. The hull was wood with iron fastenings. The spars - including the topmast - were solid wood. The standing-rigging was galvanized steel, the running-rigging Manila hemp, and the sails Egyptian cotton.
The Fairweather did have a few 20th century conveniences: an auxiliary marine diesel engine, an electric wench for hauling in the 250 lb fisherman anchor, and a radio receiver for rating the chronometer with Greenwich time.
But there was no ship-to-shore radio. There was no shower, no water-maker, no refrigeration, no heating (but rarely needed). Cooking for a crew of ten was done on a two-burner kerosene stove (the nineteenth century probably would have used a wood-burning stove). In addition, this was an era before GPS: navigation was by sextant and chronometer.
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The World Was a Different Place Then
In March 1961 the Fairweather left San Francisco and sailed down the Mexican coast to Acapulco and then across the Pacific Ocean to the South Seas. She passed through the Torres Strait, touching at Singapore, before crossing the Indian Ocean and then up through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. From Gibralter, she crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and then, after passing through the Panama Canal, returned to San Francisco in May 1965.
The world was a different place then. Although some overseas territories have remained, such as American Samoa and French Polynesia, many others have become independent: Fiji, New Hebrides (Vanuatu) Papua, Singapore, Seychelles, Zanzibar, Kenya, Aden, Sudan, Cape Verde, Barabados. Then there were no pirates in the Strait of Malacca or off the coast of East Africa. Beirut was still known as the "Paris of the East."
Perhaps more important, technology and tourism have brought major changes to many of the places that the Fairweather touched at. In 1963, for example, Seychelles was a remote British colony, visited twice a month by a seaplane flying in from Mombasa and once a month by a freighter sailing between India and South Africa. Today, Seychelles is an independent country with an international airport, and tourism, rather than vanilla, is its major source of income.
Circumnavigation
March 1961 - April 1965
Sailed 35,566 nautical miles
Spent 349 days at sea
Averaged 102 miles a day
Best noon-to-noon: 240 miles
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