“Fog cleared….BECALMED” wrote the late Commander Bill King in his log this day 50 years ago, during his epic global circumnavigation in his yacht Galway Blazer II.
His logs have been made public for the first time in advance of the 50th anniversary of his global voyage.
This particular entry (above) was made, using pencil in his log, dated May 19th, 1973.
The previous day, May 18th, 1973, he had recorded Galway Blazer II's position at 49 degrees 45N 11 degrees 25W at 0704, with 9406 nautical miles on the log.
As Galway Bay Sailing Club commodore Johnny Shorten notes in an analysis of the log entries, winds started dropping at 0100 on May 19th from force three to force two.
Eventually there was no wind, and by noon of that day the schooner was becalmed in fog.
At this point, the solo sailor was unaware that he was the focus of an international maritime alert, with ships in the south Atlantic keeping a look-out for him.
The former submarine commander had sailed from Perth, Australia on December 4th, 1972 on his specially designed junk rig yacht, and his last radio contact was six days later.
He was on his third attempt to sail around the world – stating in later interviews that he had to embark on a solo sailing voyage to recover from the mental toll taken by the second world war.
King commanded three separate British navy submarines during the conflict, and was awarded seven medals.
He had been taught to sail as a boy by his grandmother, who took up golf and learned to ski at the age of 75 and was sailing into her eighties.
As he wrote in his autobiography, “The Stick and the Stars”, published in 1958, his grandmother would sit at the helm “like a little seal in a red sou’wester”, laughing at the discomfort of her passengers.
The Golden Jubilee of Galway Blazer II's successful circumnavigation will be marked in Galway on May 23rd, 2023, and at this year’s annual general meeting of the International Junk Rig Association.
