70 knot storm brings end to Antarctica dream

6:22 AM Mon 4 Jan 2010 GMT

'Marcus sailing Nina Soraya before the storm which destroyed his sails and his dream' .

A Swiss professional boat builder, who had a dream of sailing to Antarctica and then around the world, is out of sails and out of cash after his four-year dream was dashed by a 70knot storm in the Southern Ocean.

Unable to fund his adventure further, the 33-year-old would-be-circumnavigator will sell his boat and go home to Switzerland.

The storm, together with 8-10 metre seas, shredded his genoa and his main to such an extent that he couldn't continue.

'They forecast 30 knots and I got 70,' was Marcus Weissenberger's comment when he arrived, dream destroyed, in Cape Town South Africa, from where he had started his adventure.

After nearly four years spent single-handedly building his 18 metre yacht, Nina Soraya, Weissenberger left Cape Town, South Africa in early December for a voyage to Antarctica, to be followed by a circumnavigation of the planet.

Ironically, with about 20,000 nautical miles and nearly 100 days of sailing planned ahead of him, Weissenberger was concerned more about floating containers or icebergs than he was about storms. He had spend several months moored in Cape Town putting the finishing touches on his preparations for the Antarctic and the circumnavigation, and knew that he was heading into some of the most difficult sailing conditions in the world.

'But I have to do this. Antarctica is getting smaller because of global warming and I am highly aware that if I don't go now, it may well be my last chance to see it the size it currently is,' he told Cape Town's Argus newspaper before he departed, and acknowledged that 'the journey would be either his biggest mistake or his biggest triumph'.

Marcus Weissenberger now says it was a good experience but he will certainly not try it again. It seems to be the end of a dream for another young adventurer, as he heads back to Switzerland and 'a real job.'

by Nancy Knudsen

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