I was scrolling around on warm summer evening when up on my feed popped a video of elderly chap merrily sailing along on his way from the Caribbean to Ireland, all by himself, and loving every minute of it.
His relaxed demeanor, his self deprecating wit and overall charm had me looking for more information. He checked in each day with his short video by saying, “Welcome to Old Man Sailing.” So I Googled it and this is what I came up with.
John Passmore, aka Old Man Sailing, had always dreamed of sailing around the world, but as what usual happens, life got in the way. A short marriage at 23 and a subsequent divorce (been there, done that myself), and a second marriage that worked out because his wife loved boats and before he knew it he had children and time had passed him by. Two things on his website stood out to me. A quote from John Lennon that he paraphrased. “Life happened to me while I was making other plans.” Many of us can relate.
The second thing that caught my eye was something in his childhood that mirrored my own. When John was 11 he attended a talk and slide show at a local yacht club. It was more of a talk than slide show because slides and projectors were in their infancy and that part of the show crapped out early in the presentation. It was almost a blessing because the speaker was none other that Francis Chichester who had just returned from his successful solo circumnavigation. Passmore was captivated and that evening stuck with him.
My experience was similar. I grew up sailing at a small yacht club in Durban, South Africa. There was a talk (and slideshow) by a club member who had sailed the Cape to Rio race. Two things I remember about that night. First, it was a terrible presentation. The old chap rambled on and let’s say kindly, he was no photographer. Second was that I was captivated and there and then decided that I wanted a life on the open ocean and the rest, as they say, is history.
Fast forward. Passmore, at the age of 68, was still thinking of Chichester and somewhere, in a moment of madness or perhaps one of clarity, he thought it might be a good idea to recreate Chichester’s voyage, at least as far as Australia which is where (now Sir) Francis made a stop.
And so that’s what he’s doing.
His boat is a Rival 32 which by all accounts looks well fitted out. Chichester from departed Plymouth, England on the 27th August, 1966. Sixty years later to the day Passmore departed from the same dock with a small armada of sailors escorting him for the first few miles. Then he was on his own with just 14,000 miles ahead of him. Undaunted he checks in every day with an upbeat update of where he is and what’s going on, and I find his observations fun and interesting.
His website could use the help of a teenager with a good eye toward producing that sort of thing, but he seems to have his head around social media and has built quite a decent following. He also has started a paid channel where you get extra information, but it’s more about supporting an old man and helping him make his long held dream come true than it is about the money.
Oh, I forgot to mention that John is now 77 years old. – Brian Hancock.
Title inspiration thanks to Neil Young. (feeling a bit melancholy today – ed)
