Posted: 12/13/05
Sailor completes first half of journey around the world
By Jane Palen
Managing Editor
A local manís quest to promote organ donation by sailing solo around the world is now halfway complete.
Ardell Lien, himself a heart and kidney transplant recipient, set sail from San Diego May 7 and arrived in Durban, South Africa, on November 25, logging 16,000 miles on his 27-ft. sailboat, the Catalyst.
Lien is home in Caledonia for the holidays, and in early January will spend a week at the Mayo Clinic for a thorough physical. He stopped in at The Argus office to talk about his adventure.
A quest for publicity
It does not surprise Lien that there hasnít been national or international coverage of his trip thus far. After all, many people say they are going to sail around the world, but few ever do it. He has been pleased with the press he has received locally in the places he has visited, especially in South Africa and Australia.
ìI assume weíll receive some publicity when we reach Cape Town, and then it will snowball,î Lien predicts.
Lienís reception in Durban was especially enthusiastic. Durban is a city of 3 million people, and the organ donation business is ìthrivingî there, he said. He invited nine heart transplant patients to visit him on the boat, and they were all very excited about his trip.
A sea of challenges
When itís one man and one boat against the ocean, there are bound to be challenges.
ìI knew I would have bad times, and I did,î he said. ìYou canít expose yourself to the ocean and not have bad times.î
The worst was being stuck in a tropical depression for 11 days. The depression was moving westerly at slow pace, which accounted for the long stretch of bad weather. A tropical depression sometimes precedes a tropical storm, although this one didnít develop into a storm. Lien fought high winds and 15-ft. waves. Temperatures were in the 80s, and humidity was 90 percent. It rained every day for those 11 days, and everything on the boat became mildewed.
ìIt was uncomfortable and somewhat dangerous,î Lien said.
There were more instances of bad weather, but none of so long a duration. In the Torres Strait (between Papua New Guinea and Australia), he went without sleeping for two days due to bad weather, and had to bail water. Heavy ship traffic complicated his passage.
In this e-mail entry, Lien described his experience.
Monday, August 15, 2005
THE WORLD IS ALL GOOD AGAIN. I no longer can see the Torres Strait over my stern and it puts a smile on my face. God is paying me back today as it could not be a better day for sailing West. Green water because this entire sea for hundreds of miles is less than 100 feet. I passed the entrance buoy to the straits just at daylight. I jumped in the bunk and slept for three hours. Got up had my pancakes and back in the bunk for another three hours and checked in with the net, signal was good.
It took me four days in the strait which should have been two. The wind never got under 20 and most 25 to 30 and much from the wrong direction. One night I was unable to make the heading I needed and it was blowing so I made a 180 and headed back up the same way I came. It was really rough, but the wind vane was doing a good job and I desperately needed some sleep so I did. The bunk is the only place to be if not needed. I put the harness on and off many times getting soaked every time. One time I tried to put a second reef in the main and got the battens caught in the Lazy jacks. It was just up there blowing around for 24 hours in the worst of it and chafed seven holes in the leach. They are small and should be easy to fix by a sail maker in Darwin. Other than that no damage.
There are dangers of other varieties as well. In South Africa, a sailor was killed for $15 when he ventured out of the marina after dark. And during a yacht race, a ship was lost somewhere between Mauritius and Durban, and never heard from again. Lien traveled that same stretch just two weeks after the ship disappeared.
Cast of characters
Lien has visited interesting places on his journey, and some he described as ìnot so neat.î And there are always interesting people along the way, some of whom are sailing in the same direction, so he meets up with them at various ports. He has enjoyed making the acquaintance of ìPeter Pan,î a Swede whose real name is Nils and who, at the age of 76, is sailing around the world in a 20-ft. ìsailing canoeî that he made in his garage.
Lien spent Thanksgiving (actually the day after) with a couple that is sailing the same route with their two sons. The sons are ìhome-schooledî on the yacht.
In Honaira, Lien met a nurse, Trevor Wallace, who was impressed with Lienís purpose and wrote the following letter:
Dear Lien
Met you in Honiara. Most impressed by your courage and your heroic way of increasing awareness of organ donations by sailing solo around the world.Ý As I mentioned to you, I am involvedÝwith organ donation as an Operating Theatre nurse. I regularly scrub for organ retrieval from brain dead patients. It was great to meet somebody as yourself who has received organs and has done so well from the transplant. Great to see how organ donation has given you new life and the fact that you are sailing around the world in hope that by increasing awareness will give new life to others.Ý I have been watching your progress.Ý Keep up the good work. I have attached some pics from Honiara, taken on theÝ3rd August.
All The Best
Trevor Wallace
The last leg
When he returns to his sailboat, Lien will sail around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern-most point of Africa. He wanted to make the trip around the cape before coming home, but that would have meant missing the holidays so heíll make that his first challenge on the second half of his journey.
He will spend a short time in Cape Town, and then head to St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic, the place where Napoleon was exiled in the 18th century.
No place like home
The next stop will be Brazil, and Lien expects good sailing, although he knows that any part of the ocean can be rough. He will stop in Trinidad and one other port before heading through the Panama Canal. From the Panama Canal, itís back to Hawaii. Heís returning to Hawaii because itís not possible for him to sail up the coast to his starting point in San Diego due to the wind currents.
Upon his return, he plans to head to Seattle and then down to San Diego to garner some attention to his cause. For ìPhase IIî of his mission, he hopes to have a presence at major boat shows, which attract thousands of people. He will describe his journey, perhaps give a seminar or presentation, and, most important of all, he will sign up visitors as organ donors.
Being away from home for seven months has been difficult at times, said Lien.
ìI missed being home, the round table at the Redwood and golfing in the summer,î he said. ìIíve never found a place better than Caledonia.î
At least on the second half of the journey, Lien will be getting closer to home rather than farther away.
Lienís travels can be tracked at several websites, including lifesharing.org and organ-donation-for-life.com. On www.shiptrak.org, you can see Lienís day to day progress. Enter the shipís call sign of N7PCY and change the view (zoom) to 25 percent.
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