Cape Crusader's Do-or-die Drama
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday June 18, 1991
The single-handed circumnavigation of the world's great south capes was not challenging enough for Sydney architect Raud O'Brien.
Neither was designing and building his own 10-metre cutter, Little Wing, nor financing his 196-day journey without sponsors.
No, the 41-year-old was not satisfied he had a real challenge ahead of him until he set out from his parents' Palm Beach home last year on a yacht with no engine, liferaft, satellite navigation, radar, long-range radio communication or weather fax.
He had no means of communicating with the outside world and no means of abandoning ship.
"It is against my principles to call for help," Mr O'Brien said yesterday. "You shouldn't be sailing unless you feel confident. Rescues only encourage more idiots to go out expecting to be rescued."
There was no fridge aboard, all his rubbish was stowed and he refused to do any fishing. "When you're alone on the ocean, all living things are your friends," he said.
For the vegetarian-environmentalist, the most frightening experience in the journey, which ended at Palm Beach last Friday, was watching a Japanese fishing boat catching squid - an important food source for his beloved albatrosses.
"I was watching the mechanised pack rape of the ocean," he said. "I felt my friends were being destroyed. The albatrosses were at home and in harmony with each other."
Mr O'Brien's remarkable achievement is the culmination of years of personal struggle.
He had a near-fatal rock climbing accident in 1972 which left him unconscious for eight days and, for some months, paralysed down one side, without the use of one eye.
It made him reclusive but his remarkable achievement has renewed his self-confidence.
"I was never lonely at sea because I have a very free conscience," he said
He stopped only once, to send a telegram from the Falkland Islands to let his parents know he was alive.
The adventurer feels the extraordinary challenge has freed him to concentrate on finishing a book about the voyage, painting and yacht design.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald