Children of Cape Horn

by Rosie Swale

Children of Cape Horn (signed)

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Rosie Swale-Pope
MBE, born 2 October 1946, is an author, adventurer and marathon runner, who was the first woman to sail single-handed across the Atlantic in a small boat, trekked 3,000 miles alone through Chile on horseback, and successfully completed a five-year around-the-world run, raising £250,000 for a charity that supports orphaned children in Russia[1] and to highlight the importance of early diagnosis of prostate cancer. Starting on 2 October 2003, her 57th birthday, Swale-Pope survived nearly freezing to death and being run down by a bus before returning to Tenby in Wales on crutches because of stress fractures on 25 August 2008, having worn out 53 pairs of running shoes.

Beginning in December 1971, Rosie sailed around the world from Gibraltar via Australia with her first husband Colin Swale and daughter Eve on their 30-foot catamaran, the Anneliese. The trip was part sponsored by the Daily Mail newspaper and also by Independent Television News (ITN) who provided them with a camera to record their own news reports of the journey. Sailing 30,000 miles across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific, stopping at the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas, Tahiti and Tonga before reaching Australia in 1973. They were the first catamaran to round Cape Horn.

Although both Swale and her husband were able to sail and had prepared as well as they could, the trip had its risks and nearly ended in disaster when Rosie fell overboard in the Caribbean 900 miles from the closest land - again when she needed emergency medical treatment in hospital and a third time when the whole family suffered arsenic poisoning from a meal of unsoaked beans. The hardships were survived, however, and the voyage was a significant navigational achievement using only an old Spitfire compass, nautical charts and a sextant in the days before GPS. By the time the family finally returned to Plymouth Rosie had not only completed her first book Rosie Darling (often working below decks on her typewriter for up to six hours at a time) but had also written her second book, Children of Cape Horn.

When her second husband, Clive, 73, died of prostate cancer in 2002, Rosie decided to run around the world to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Charity and an orphanage in Kitezh, Russia which provides children with education and care..

Her aim was to run around the northern hemisphere taking in as much land mass as possible, with no support crew and just minimal supplies and sponsorship. Rosie started from her home town of Tenby in Wales on her 57th birthday, 2 October 2003, where her first footfall is engraved in a flagstone on her front step. Equipped with just a small specially designed cart of food and basic camping equipment, the trip was funded by renting out her cottage. By 5 April 2004, she reached Moscow, Russia, and on 15 September 2005, she reached Magadan in far eastern Russia. After facing extreme conditions in the Alaskan Winter, she reached the road again in 17 April 2006, and in October 2006 she was in Edmonton, Canada. Four years after the departure, on 2 October 2007, she reached New York City, USA.

She ran harnessed to her cart, which was designed for sleeping, shelter and storage. Her son James maintained a website that was followed closely by her supporters and provided regular updates and messages about her progress. Her supporter Geoff Hall organised supplies and equipment to reach her around the world. In the Faroes, she took part in an organised midnight hike to take in the scenery. She also gave cultural talks while on the road, and described how she met a naked man with a gun, how Siberian wolves ran with her for a week and completing the Chicago marathon on the way.

Surviving on minimal rations, Rosie fell ill near Lake Baikal in Russia possibly from a tick bite, and wandered into the path of a bus. She was knocked unconscious and taken in the bus to hospital. In Alaska, she had to cope wit

Reviews

[Robert Williams]

As a long term ocean-crossing single-hander, I found Rosie Swale's book interesting and well written. Like another reviewer here, I wondered whether I would take a relatively small catamaran with two toddlers on board around Cape Horn and, having recently sailed around Cape Horn in my own 12.5 meter steel sloop, would have to say most definitely not. I would have been among the naysayers in Sydney saying they shouldn't do it. However, having said that, I admire their determination, their spirit of adventure, and their resilience.

[Jan]

An exciting and engaging read, always optimistic even in the face of harsh and difficult situations.

[Junessa Gray]

very enjoyable memoir that both shares the family journey across the world and back but also the intricacies and joys of raising a family with young children at the same time.

[Wayne Jordaan]

Will you sail a catamaran through from Europe through the Panama Canal to Australia and then back to England via the Magellan Strait at Cape Horn. No catamaran has ever been through the strait at the southern end of South America. Too dangerous the wellwishers said. Oh you might give it a go? Will you then take your two toddlers of nearly 1 and 3 along?' Yeah, thought as much. Well Rosie and Colin Swale did it, and after a lot of pondering on whether I would have done this, with or without children, and not reaching any definitive conclusions, I moved on to another: I wonder what happened to these two kids after their global circumnavigation in 1973, and whether they tried to top it?. I guess I am going to have to google

[Robert Ditterich]

Going from Gibraltar to Australia and then to England via Cape Horn is an arduous and uncommon adventure. Doing it as a couple in 1971 with two children under school age, in a fibreglass catamaran is a wonderful and even less likely story. Rosie Swale wrote a fascinating account in this book and her observations about the children and the unusual choice of boat provide a marvellous context for the details in preparation required, and the tremendous concentration expected from these folk as they did battle with some legendary seas- against all sensible advice.

Their boat was a production GPR cat designed by Bill O'Brien.
I enjoyed every page.