Atlantic History

Preparing for the 20th annual migration across the Atlantic Ocean―Bavaria to Florida―connects me with a long history surrounding this second largest ocean, also known as the “Sea of Atlas.” I rarely get to see the ocean from the plane’s window because of thick overcast. During a previous flight, on a rare clear day, my great circle route came close enough to Greenland’s coast to actually see the coastline and the icy surface. It was a spectacular sight of the world’s largest non-continental island. The Vikings must have been hardy sailors.

Most of the time―when not reading or sleeping―I recall past blue-water sailing trips, mid-ocean island stopovers, a long list of Atlantic factoids, and the historic significance of Columbus’s daring voyage of discovery. There are endless events to think about while flying 33,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean:

2200 BC — Earliest record of Atlantic whaling.
200s BC — Chinese invent the magnetic compass.
400s AD—Phoenicians thought to have discovered the Sargasso Sea and Azores Islands.
570 — Irish Monk, St. Brendan, completes a voyage to Iceland and the Azores in an animal-skin covered sailboat.
800s — Persians invent the navigational astrolabe to determine the altitude of the sun and other celestial bodies.
1003 — Lief Ericsson sails from Greenland to Newfoundland, North America, and establishes a settlement that lasts for about twenty years. News of his voyage to the New World apparently never reached Spain and southern parts of Europe.
1292 — Marco Polo returns from China, reports on the existence of Japan, and encourages others to think about a route across the Atlantic.
1427 — Vasco da Gama is the first European to reach the Azores.
1488 — Bartolomeu Dias reports of his sail around the southern tip of Africa.
1492 — Christopher Columbus aboard the SANTA MARIA completes his first voyage from the Canary Islands to San Salvador, Bahamas Islands.
1500 — Start of the Grand Banks fisheries off Newfoundland by the British.
1504 — Christopher Columbus completes his fourth and last voyage to the New World.
1519 — Magellan leads the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean.
1620 — The MAYFLOWER arrives and her passengers establish a colony at Plymouth.
1786 — Josiah Shackford makes the first-recorded, single-handed sailboat crossing of the Atlantic from France to Surinam.
1819 — SAVANNAH completes the first Atlantic steamship crossing.
1851 — AMERICA sails to England and starts the America’s Cup racing series.
1895 — Joshua Slocum left Boston and crossed the Atlantic on the first leg of his single-handed circumnavigation aboard the 37-foot SPRAY.
1897 — George Harbo and Frank Samuelson are first to row across the Atlantic.
1912 — TITANIC fails to make her maiden crossing but her fate establishes the International Ice Patrol.
1948 — The 523-foot troop transport, MARINE CARP, ferries me across the Mediterranean and Atlantic to New York City.
1952 — Ann Davison becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a single-handed sailboat.
1960 — Sir Francis Chichester wins the first transatlantic race for single-handed sailboats in the 40-foot GYPSY MOTH III.
1969 — Thor Heyerdahl crosses from Morocco to Barbados in the reed raft RA.
1986 — Frenchmen Caroni and Beauchene sail a tandem windsurfer from New York to France.
1991 — My junk-rigged, 32-foot SABRA sails (guided by sextant) from Washington, DC via the Azores to Seville, Spain.
1992 — 138 sailboats (including SABRA) complete the America 500 Quincentenary Rally from Spain to the Bahamas in celebration of Columbus’s historic voyage.
1993 I joined the 45-foot MOONSHINE from Cadiz, Spain, via the Cape Verdes to Antigua.
1993 — I joined the 39-foot GREIF from St. Augustine via the Azores to Cherbourg, France.
2001 — I joined the 46-foot HORNBLOWER II from Cape Town, South Africa via St. Helena to Salvador, Brazil, and Florida, culminating a 15 month circumnavigation.
2003 — I joined the 38-foot TIOTA from Vilamoura, Portugal, to the Azores.
2008 — With 55 passengers we motor across the South Atlantic on the research vessel PROFESSOR MOLCHANOV from Antarctica to the Cape Verdes Islands via Tristan da Cunha, the Ascension Islands, and St. Helena.
2014 — Preparations underway for my 20th transatlantic migration, by plane.

My fascination with the Atlantic Ocean whether by sail or plane continues, hopefully for many more migrations.