Around the World in Aching Days

A time of joy?

As most of us bask in the warm afterglow of Christmas, and prepare to close the book on another year with champagne bubbles tickling our noses, there is one lonely adventurer having trouble getting into the spirit of the season.

Seattle’s Karen Thorndike, trying to become the first woman from the United States to sail solo around the world, spent Thursday much the same way she has spent practically every day since setting a course for Australia from Argentina nearly two months ago: getting blasted by wind and tossed about an angry sea.

As for bubbles, she probably has them coming out of her ears.

Curious as to how the embattled sailor is coping emotionally during the holidays in the middle of the Indian Ocean, with more than 50 days behind her and about 50 ahead of her as she tries to complete the longest leg of a very long journey, I relayed a message through her friend and publicist Cathy Main, who reached Thorndike via e-mail through a special satellite connection operated by Comsat Mobile Communications.

Thorndike’s response: “You caught me between gales. . . . Spending the holidays alone is very sad and lonely. Spending Christmas alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, now that’s real solitude. I do have one New Year’s resolution, though, that my next voyage will be with Star Trek.”

She didn’t say so, but she probably wishes she could beam back to civilization about now. Getting around this little planet of ours in her 36-foot boat has been one harrowing experience after another.

This is actually Thorndike’s second attempt at sailing around the world. During her first try in 1995, lightening struck her vessel 1,000 miles off Nicaragua, disabling her electronics and forcing her back to San Diego.

This trip began smoothly enough in August 1996. From Seattle to San Diego, from San Diego to Hawaii and from Hawaii to Tahiti she breezed merrily along with very few problems.

But then the calendar turned to 1997, and what a wet and wild year Thorndike has had.

She might as well have been sailing through a cyclone when she rounded South America’s Cape Horn. A howling wind stayed with her almost daily as she made her way precariously toward the Falkland Islands, where she was to put in and regroup.

A steady gale blew her back toward the open sea as she tried to enter the harbor at Port Stanley in the Falklands, forcing her to tack for hours before making it ashore.

Three weeks later, she set sail for Australia, only to come down with a severe case of flu at about the same time the wind began to rage across the South Atlantic so violently that 20-foot waves threatened to capsize Thorndike’s vessel, which she named Amelia.

Not able to sleep, soaking wet, wheezing in sickness and being blown off-course at a speed of 10 knots an hour with her sails down, wondering whether she were going to have a heart attack before or after her boat flipped, Thorndike sent a distress signal and did her best to keep Amelia afloat.

As good fortune would have it, a 340-foot British warship was nearby and rushed to her rescue. Thorndike was hospitalized briefly at Port Stanley before flying home to Seattle for a thorough checkup, which determined that her heart was fine and that she had merely been suffering from exhaustion and probably stress.

With a little luck, Thorndike thought, she could fly back and resume her journey before the Southern Hemisphere winter set in. But for Thorndike, luck was in short supply.

While making the return trip to the Falklands in early spring, she was robbed of her money and documents during a layover at the airport in Santiago, Chile, and missed the weekly flight to Port Stanley while she waited for her support team to send new documents and cash.

She eventually made it back to the Falklands, greeted again by gale-force winds, but by then it was too late. It was late April and the onset of winter made the 7,700-mile crossing much too dangerous a proposition.

Thorndike instead sailed to Mar del Plata, where she waited out the winter living aboard Amelia in the resort city’s harbor.

She set sail again Nov. 1, hoping to arrive in Tasmania, Australia, sometime in February.

So far, so good, although Thorndike’s communications in recent weeks have begun to have a familiar tone.

“The last couple of days have been exhausting,” she said after rounding Africa’s Cape of Good Hope on Dec. 9. “I must say I feel more relief than accomplishment. . . . I had winds ranging from 35 knots to 55 knots, huge seas, and it wasn’t even a storm. Glad it’s behind me . . . wouldn’t do it again.”

Alas, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for the weary traveler. On Sunday, Thorndike is expected to reach the halfway point of her circumnavigation.

Asked how she felt about that, she replied, “My respect for the ocean had grown considerably by the time I rounded Cape Horn, but now that I’m halfway home it has increased to pure awe.”

When weather permits, Thorndike is sending daily reports to her support team in Seattle. Those interested in tracking her progress--or sending her a holiday greeting--can do so on the Internet at www.goals.com.

ONE SORRY JACKASS

San Diego’s Graham Mackintosh, a land-lubbing adventurer making his way afoot down the middle of Baja California, is having a heck of a time trying to negotiate the San Pedro Martir mountain range.

The creeks are infested with ticks. Rain has been constant and fierce winds have been unrelenting.

But before you begin to feel sorry for the red-headed Englishman, consider the plight of his poor burro.

“I went through five days holed up by rains and storm and wind,” Mackintosh said in a phone interview earlier this week. “The winds were 50-70 miles per hour. I practically buried my tent in the ground and it still almost got blown away.

“When it would clear up I would put a bowl of water out for the burro and it would freeze solid. . . . He looked the picture of perfect misery. He would take up what I call his storm position, where he would puts his head down almost to the ground and his butt to the wind.”

Much to the delight of the burro, Mackintosh’s GPS navigation system went on the blink, forcing him to hike to the coast and return home for the holidays, or so Mackintosh says.

In any case, the burro is safe and warm at ranch in Baja totally unaware that his diminutive master is coming back to get him Jan. 2 to resume the journey to Cabo San Lucas, which he hopes to complete sometime next spring.

THE CHUM LINE . . .

* Whale-watching season officially begins today at many sportfishing landings, and by early next week it will be in full swing. Catalina Cruises in Long Beach, whose three-hour excursions will feature experts from San Pedro’s Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, is also taking reservations. The whales are definitely out there. I saw three southbound grays the other day a few hundred yards off the Hermosa Beach Pier.

* Where they’re biting: A 64-pound albacore was caught by Orange County’s Jim Blarkar aboard the Admiral out of Virg’s Landing in Morro Bay. The fish are there, but so is the weather. Timing is the key. South of the border, the dorado bite remains steady off Cabo San Lucas--an 85-pounder was reportedly caught earlier this week--but the striped marlin are not around in their usual December numbers. A few of the larger blues and blacks are still being caught. Locally, the cold snap has helped complete the transition from surface fishing for yellowtail and bonito to bottom fishing for bass, halibut and sculpin.

* Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area in San Bernardino County will begin offering one-hour boat tours on Saturdays and Sundays to observe bald eagles that have migrated into the region for the winter. Tours start Jan. 10 and there is no charge. Reservations will be accepted beginning Jan. 3 at (760) 389-2303.

* The Sierra Club is offering a 10-week wilderness travel course, featuring instruction in conditioning, navigation, rock scrambling and winter backpacking, beginning Jan. 13 at selected sites in Long Beach, Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley. Cost is $150 for members, $165 for non-members. Details: (310) 374-4371.

* The 130-foot schooner American Pride, in association with Horizons West Guided Travel Adventures, will conduct a fund-raising day cruise Feb. 8, with proceeds going to the non-profit Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. Cost is $45, including lunch. Details: (800) 430-2544.