Bad Weather Ends Blind Sailor’s Trip

Blind yachtsman Jim Dickson said Friday that bad weather is forcing him to postpone until next year his quest to become the first sightless yachtsman to try to cross the Atlantic.

Dickson, 41, sailed on Aug. 4 from Portsmouth, R. I., for Plymouth, England, but had to make a 200-mile detour to Bermuda when the autopilot and satellite navigation system aboard his 36-foot sloop, Eye Opener, broke down a few days after he put to sea.

He braved rough seas and heavy winds about 60 miles north of Bermuda last week as a tropical storm blew across this tiny British colony and headed out to sea. Dickson and the Eye Opener, its sails and rigging damaged by the storm, were guided across the island’s reef line and into port on Aug. 14.