WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM:
DURBAN yachtsman Geoff Hilton-Barber has become the first blind sailor to single-handedlycross an ocean. He arrived in Fremantle on the west coast of Australia yesterday after a 6 000 nautical mile, 50-day voyage on his 33-foot yacht, Abicas.
Hilton-Barber was escorted through the shipping lanes on the last few hours of his voyage by a close friend, Roy Bowden — by convention such assistance is not considered to detract from his achievement.
An employee of the Natal Society for the Blind, Hilton-Barber used Braille charts and audio electrical equipment. An automated voice on his yacht’s global positioning system (GPS) gave him his position. Apart from these aids, however, his yacht was standard, demanding all the skills of a sighted sailor.
Last week the Abicas took on water, damaging his batteries, but the setback failed to discourage him.
Friends at the Royal Natal Yacht Club have lauded his achievement as unparalleled. Hilton-Barber, who began losing his sight at the age of 20, had aimed to prove that “blind people aren’t as handicapped as most people think”.
The only person to have approached his achievement is an American blind sailor who crossed the Pacific from Los Angeles to Hawaii.