How risky is solo circumnavigation with a sailboat?

Question

there are quite many people crossing the oceans alone, but how risky it is? is it more safer to sail somewhere by the coast?

Answer 1

Have sailed alone it's quite hard as there are a lot of big things that can run you over at night>

Do coastal till you have many hours of all kinds of seas & weather> Learn to nagavate the old way with out GPS so when it guits your have a chance of finding your way> I now have 2 GPS backups radar>Globel phone> Epirb> and an assortment of fire Arms>>For the 1s that want what you have & will take it from you> THINK SAFETY FIRST>

Answer 2

Be ware of pirates. for real man.

Answer 3

I've met many people who have done it.

They say it's not really that risky, it just gets a bit lonely.

They just watch the weather reports and give the storms plenty of leeway.

Answer 4

If you don't know the answer to this question then you are in no position to start to think about ocean navigation.

Start by learning to sail and navigate in small boats, or very small boats.  Learn to make land falls in all conditions and in all weathers.

Learn how to single hand a boat, and how to use the tools of single handed sailing, including a self steering gear, the navigation tools and your charts.  Then learn about weather routing, ocian passages and shipping lanes.

If you are an arm chair navigator you my want to purchase your own copy of 'Ocean Passages'.

After studding the books on coastal navigation, read a few good of books on single handing, an d pickup up an old Davis 25 and a copy of Mary Blewitt's book.

Answer 5

Make out your will before you go, as you might not return. While you are sleeping you might get run over by a ship, pounded under by a rogue wave, or taken prisoner by pirates. It is not a real safe trip.

Answer 6

While it may be hard to attract rescue if you're too far out at sea, most of the major risks seem to involve being accidentally run down by freighters or tankers, or being caught by pirates in the Indonesia/ SE Asian area. So I think it largely depends on how well you plan the trip to avoid dangerous sea routes or hazardous coastal areas.

Answer 7

Well I've never sailed alone and I've come nowhere near a circumnavigation. I sail with my wife (we live-aboard) but there have been times when we've been at sea, many hours sailing from land, when the wind had increased unexpectedly into F8 or even F9 and the sea state has increased beyond the comfortable, when I've been scared to death. And that's just in the Mediterranean! I don't even want to think about being in the middle of an ocean and several days (or weeks) from land handling that sort of fear alone.