Swirly World sails south. Book signing by author Andrew Fagan.
Please note: Swirly World will also be moored at the Museum for viewing from 7 to 10 June.
In 2007, Kiwi musician and radio personality Andrew Fagan set sail alone in his 5.4 metre plywood yacht, 'Swirly World', to circumnavigate New Zealand. And just to make it more difficult, the outspoken Fagan included a leg to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands in the notorious Southern Ocean, setting a world record in the process.
All in all he sailed over 3000 miles in two months. Facing such potentially lethal conditions in such a tiny craft took careful planning mixed with extreme determination, serious fortitude and uncommon daring.
Andrew offers a unique and refreshing perspective on the world of solo sailing, bringing the intensity and self-doubt alive and revealing the extreme emotional endurance required in order to complete such a long and multi-faceted journey alone.
In this account of his voyage, Fagan tells of having to avoid icebergs, sailing through a Force Ten storm in the Southern Ocean and visiting sites of shipwrecks at Port Ross in the Auckland Island group: ‘With the genuine concern of a very fatigued person, I was sailing for my life and I knew it!’
In a country fed on a regular diet of exceptional sailing feats, his voyage was immediately embraced and celebrated. Swirly World Sails South is a sharply accurate and humorous narrative blend written from Andrew’s journal accounts and accompanied by photographs.
He offers a unique and refreshing perspective on the world of solo sailing, bringing the intensity and self-doubt alive and revealing the extreme emotional endurance required in order to complete such a long and multi-faceted journey alone.
About the author:
Andrew Fagan is a prominent New Zealand writer, singer and songwriter who gained fame in New Zealand in the 1980s as the lead singer of pop group ‘The Mockers’.
Following the success of their 1984 hit ‘Forever Tuesday Morning’, Fagan won the RIANZ 1985 award for Top Male Vocalist. Since ‘The Mockers’ broke up he has recorded and performed as a solo artist and is also the author of a sailing autobiography, Swirly World: The Solo Voyages, which captured his epic solo journey across the Tasman. He currently co-hosts a talkback show on Radio Live with his partner, Karyn Hay.
