News / Round the world sailor Halcrow has a second go

SEVEN years after his fateful last attempt to circumnavigate the globe single handedly on his home made boat Elsi Arrub, Shetland yachtsman Andrew Halcrow is preparing to set off on another year-long voyage.

Back in 2006, Halcrow had to be rescued from his 32 foot yacht around 300 miles south west off Australia after suffering a burst appendix.

At the time Halcrow insisted he had no intention of ever embarking on a similar journey again.

But after overhauling the 26 year old vessel he built for a five year cruise around the world, he realised the desire to complete the non-stop challenge still burned inside him.

“I didn’t plan to do it again. The thing that kicked it off was when Elsi became a little bit neglected, and I knew I had to do something with her to keep her going. So, last summer I decided to shot blast the deck and paint her up,” he said.

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“When I finished that and she was looking really good, it was almost a case of her being all dressed up with nowhere to go.”

Inevitably he began considering a final crack at his lifelong ambition.

Having already sailed halfway around the globe, the 54 year old is convinced that this time he is better prepared mentally, although he freely admits that “you tend to forget the bad bits”.

Halcrow sparked a major international rescue operation, when he developed appendicitis just before Christmas 2006 while crossing the vast Southern Ocean.

After speaking to his wife Alyson by satellite phone, she alerted Shetland Coastguard who in turn contacted the international rescue centre in Falmouth.

Amazingly, Halcrow was located by an Australian spotter plane just four and half hours after he had spoken to his wife in Shetland

A few hours later he was taken on board the bulk carrier Elegant Star from where he was transferred to hospital in Albany for a life saving operation.

Months later, and meanwhile back at his home in Burra, Halcrow was stunned when he got news that his much loved yacht had been found still afloat.

He was reunited with Elsi in May 2007 when she arrived back in Shetland onboard one of Streamline’s cargo ships.

This week he said that before setting off in June 2006 he had considered getting his appendix taken out, but decided against it when he was advised that appendicitis was a young person’s ailment.

Joking that he will not suffer from a burst appendix again, he said that at his age he would be far more likely to suffer from a heart attack.

“I spoke to a good friend of mine who has done this trip a couple of times. He spoke to his doctor about his appendix, and the doctor said that at his age he was more likely to get a heart attack.

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“Do you want me to take your heart out as well, his doctor asked.”

Halcrow is fully aware of what people might think about him setting off again.

And although he is embarking on a single-handed trip, he insists the journey is a team effort and would not be possible without his wife’s support.

“Alyson will be the essential onshore part of this challenge. She has backed me the whole way through and made many sacrifices to enable me to achieve my ambition.

“This trip would not be happening at all if it were not for her and I cannot thank her enough for that,” he said.

The hardest bit though has been making the decision to try once again; once the commitment was made, the preparation has been more or less plain sailing.

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He has spent the last few months planning his route, this time leaving at the onset of winter to head down to South America before rounding Cape Horn to cross the Pacific.

He plans to sail through the Torres Strait between Australia and Papa New Guinea, then cross the Indian Ocean past the Cape of Good Hope back into the Atlantic Ocean.

“There will be bad weather because I have to leave in November and come back in the winter.

“I will be off South Africa during the winter, but I will be doing a lot of sailing in really good weather in the trade winds right across the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

“There is an outside chance of a cyclone in the Pacific, but if I plan not to go through that area until May I should avoid that,” he explained. 

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Halcrow is due to leave Shetland during the third week of September taking his yacht down to Falmouth for final preparations, including removing the vessel’s engine, installing renewable power sources, stocking up on food to last for a year and ensuring that his modes of communication – a satellite phone and an HF radio – are in perfect working condition.

He plans to set off from the English Channel in early November and hopes to be back in the UK about 12 to 13 months later.

He said: “If I don’t do it now, I am never going to do it. I dinna want to be sitting in an old folks home, being 90 years old and thinking I really should have done it.”